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1 



SLEEP 

WITH REFERENCE TO 

SENSATION AND MEM OKI 



1 For the soul never slumbereth, bnt is as the eye of the Eternal, 
And mind, the breath of God, knoweth not ideal vacuity : 
Ai night, after weariness and watching, the body sinketh into sleep, 
But the mental eye is awake, and thou reasonest in thy dreams : 
In a dream thou mayst live a lifetime, and all be forgotten in the morning." 

Tupper. 



BLANCHARD FOSGATE, M.D 

P&gatrian to trjc Nsdj gotfe estate prison at Sufiurn. 



10 



r'- 



NEW YORK: 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY 

, MDCCCL. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 
) Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



B. Craighead, Printer and Stereotifper 
112 Fulton Street. 



6 9 *- 



PREFACE, 



In publishing the following Essay, the author is aware that the 
philosophy of mind has been the theme of gifted intellects through 
all civilized periods, and that, varied as its phases are, they have 
each elicited the closest investigation. The work is therefore 
submitted with great deference to the public. 

The reader will bear in mind that the subjects of the several 
chapters have not been examined with a view to their perfect 
history or phenomena, but have been introduced, more especially, 
with reference to the particular views proposed in the Introduction. 
In each, the leading object has been to collect facts and analyse 
combinations, the more clearly to elucidate, and the more 
perfectly to illustrate the view taken of that portion of psychology 
under consideration. 

Auburn, N. Y., May, 1850. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
Introduction, -- - -17 

CHAPTER I. 

Nervous and Mental Action, - - - - ■ . - -25 

Sensation and Perception, 25 

Phantasm, - - - - ■ 27 

Reflex Action, - - - - - - - -31 

Consensual or Associate Action, ----- 32 

Mental Action, 34 

Deranged Mental Action, ------ 37 

Rapidity of Mental Action, 41 

CHAPTER H. 

Sleep, - -50 

Causes, ---------58 

Induction, ---------58 

Divisions, -.---.---62 
Stages,- --------- 63 

Lassitude, ------ --65 

Slumber, ..-.. = --65 

Dreaming, -------- 67 

Torpor, - - - 91 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Page 

Mesmerism, - - - - - - - - - -96 

CHAPTER IV. 
Somnambulism, 112 

CHAPTER V. 
Incubus, 132 

CHAPTER VI. 
Tkance, 146 

CHAPTER VII. 
Catalepsy, - - 162 

Conclusion, - - - - - - - - -172 



INTRODUCTION. 



The phenomena of sleep have engaged the specula- 
tive and philosophic consideration of psychologists 
from the earliest periods. And although deep-search- 
ing investigation has made no approximation toward 
the fundamental fact of what sleep is, still a vast store 
of knowledge has been accumulated, from which mate- 
rial may be drawn to define its operations, and deter- 
mine the laws by which this condition of our being 
is governed. 

The ultimate principles — or what sleep is, and what 
may be its cause — being, through Infinite wisdom, 
involved in obscurity so profound, that it can only be 
dissipated by disclosing the mysterious fountains of 
life, we pass to the consideration of its existence as a 
component of our mental and physical being. The 
phenomena of memory, as presented in connexion 
with sensation during sleep, will also engage our espe- 
cial attention. 



IS SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

We shall, in this Essay, endeavor to show, 
That during sleep, the mental faculties are as active as 

during wakefulness ; 
That memory is no criterion by which to judge the 

mind in sleep ; and 
That the mind is dependent upon the integrity of the 

organs of external sensation for a remembrance of 

what transpires during this state. 

To establish these propositions, it becomes necessary 
to examine such of the pathological and normal phe- 
nomena of our compound being as bear relation to the 
subject. The mysterious as well as the more evident, 
the complex and the comparatively simple states in 
which our existence is involved, are made in some 
degree the subjects of our inquiry. 

The doctrine, that the mind is as active during our 
sleep as when we are awake, has long been maintained 
by some physiologists. A writer upon dreams in the 
London Penny Cyclopaedia says, " It is a question, 
whether sleep operates on the mind as well as on the 
body ; whether while it suspends the action of the body, 
it also, either through the body or otherwise, suspends 
the action of the mind. This is a question on which 
we cannot speak positively, and on which our opinion 
can be determined" only by the greater probability of 
the one side or the other." That the greater proba- 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

bility is on the side of mental activity, we hope, in 
the course of our remarks, most fully.to establish. 

Whether memory is dependent on the integrity of 
the organs of external relation, in the waking as well 
as in the sleeping state, may be questionable ; but 
many circumstances give plausibility to the suggestion 
that it may be. Do we remember anything not 
transmitted to the sensorium through the senses ? If 
not, any mental operation, independent of sensational 
organs for its primary stimulus, cannot be retained. 
When the mind is so riveted upon an idea, that these 
organs do not convey to the centre of perception 
external stimuli, there will be no recollection of things 
felt or seen, although they may have been-even power- 
fully impressed. The fact that memory is a faculty of 
the mind not fully comprehended, renders it a fit sub- 
ject of speculation, and thus it may be as Dr. Reed 
says, " when philosophers have piled one supposition 
on another, as the giants piled the mountains in order 
to scale the heavens, it is all to no purpose — memory 
remains unaccountable ; and we know as little how we 
remember things past, as how we are conscious of the 
present." 

In examining the phenomena of mind, with a view 
to establish the proposition, ' that the mind is depend- 
ent upon the integrity of the organs of external sensa- 
tion, for a remembrance of what transpires during 



20 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

sleep/ it becomes necessary to present the psycho- 
logical foundation upon which this conclusion is based. 
We should remark, however, that with the doctrine of 
essences, or ontology, we have little to do ; but that in 
the science of mind, in its more limited acceptation as 
regards its psycho-physiological phenomena, is to be 
found the sphere of our observations. 

The mind, then, in the field of our labors, we regard 
as a unit, and as acting and being acted upon in one 
direction, through sensation, by external influences ; 
and in the other, by the innate powers of the organ 
of its own manifestation. The brain, notwithstanding 
the unity and immateriality of the mind, is so organized 
that particular parts are designed as fit instruments to 
reveal the properties of mind separately considered. 
The faculty of perception, the flow of feeling, and the 
power of thought, are elementary modes of organic 
activity by and through whose agency we know our 
position, exert our energy, and comprehend our rela- 
tions. By a combination of these elements we are 
enabled to realize the outward world, and to grasp the 
results which arise from a contemplation of its phe- 
nomena. It is to this intermediate, this connecting link 
between the world of mind and the world of matter, 
that our philosophy is confined. How matter is so 
sublimated that the spirit principle is enabled to realize 
it, or how mind is so 'conjoined to matter as to be cog- 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

nisant of the operations connected with our material 
being, are problems to be solved, if ever solved, in the 
higher walks of metaphysical research. 

External and internal sensations, and the powers of 
reflection, are the stimuli to these elementary princi- 
ples or their special organs. Of these several sources 
of knowledge, we hold external sensation alone, as 
contributing to the permanency of our mental acquire- 
ments. It is at least doubtful whether the understand- 
ing or reason contributes any knowledge whatever. 
The facts acquired through sensation, are only com- 
bined and arranged by reason, and the results are 
brought into practical existence by the power of the 
will. 

In the process of recollecting, the reflective faculty 
casts its stimulating influence through the mass of ideas 
already accumulated by observation, until it falls upon 
some one bearing relation to the subject in question, 
when, by association, that particular catenation is 
aroused, and in this manner the idea sought is quickly 
brought to view. This rationale having relation to 
ideas of outward existence alone, it may be asked, 
whether the mind has no power of recalling into mental 
being the memory of previous impressions from the 
vast field of the emotions ? We answer, it has not. It 
may create a new emotion, but cannot recall one 
which has passed. When by the power of recollection 



22 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

we bring to view pictures of material objects not then 
present to the senses, we merely bring up what was 
previously deposited in the mind ; the idea of the 
impression — not the impression itself; it is a re-presen- 
tation — not a creation. This is a memory of the fact : 
but through the reappearing of the idea, the feelings 
may be stimulated in their activity, and an emotion 
produced identical with the one caused by the impres- 
sion on which the idea was originally formed, and 
which may again be incorporated in the mental 
process. This is not the memory of an idea, but the 
creation of an emotion. An organ of feeling has but 
one definite action ; and whenever excited, it is the 
creation of a new emotion, not the memory of one 
gone by. Its action can neither be induced nor 
varied by any direct intellectual effort, but may be 
indirectly stimulated through association with the per- 
ceptions, as it requires a repetition of the same stimu- 
lus to excite the emotion which originally induced it. 
In the re-excitement of an organ of internal sensation, 
we have its mode of action, which presents to the 
mind an actual existence — the thing itself. Memory 
is only a recall of ideas already formed — not a creation 
of them. On the contrary, when recollecting, the 
mind can re-assemble the ideas that originated in per- 
ception of material impressions, in proportion to the 
perfection of the ideas, and within the range of each 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

individual capacity. In this recall of ideas without 
reference to their origin, we recognise a distinct power 
of the mind, operating through the organs of percep- 
tion, which we consider to be memory. 

Memory, as before stated, is a mode of activity of 
the organs of perception stimulated by external sensa- 
tion ; but recollection or voluntary memory, i. e. the 
power of recalling into thought the memory of past 
perceptions and their associate ideas, is an attribute 
distinct from what may be termed passive memory, or 
the mere remembrance of things unconnected with 
collateral circumstances. That volition may again 
and again bring up all these associations by an act of 
recollection, is undoubtedly true, for they have become 
the property of the mind, to be used as occasion may 
demand. 

To distinguish consciousness from memory, we 
would say that the former does not depend upon the 
latter for existence, because consciousness is ever 
present, ever living. The consciousness of one period, 
and the consciousness of another, are connected by a 
variety of circumstances ; and it is an attribute of 
memory, through these circumstances, to combine 
these different periods of existence, making our lives 
one harmonious whole. When by disease the memory 
becomes impaired, it does not affect the consciousness. 
In such instances, the sources of memory, not con- 



24 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

sciousness, are involved. In many cases of insanity, 
the individual imagines himself to be another person ; 
and through impairment of memory, it is probable that 
identity, not consciousness, is lost : identity being the 
result of memory and consciousness combined. We 
are acquainted with a lunatic irrecoverably deranged, 
who believes himself to be the Lord Mayor of London, 
being originally from that city. But notwithstanding 
his imaginary social elevation, he knows himself; he 
answers to his name ; and in some particulars is aware 
of his actual condition. The chain of his identity is 
deranged and broken, but his consciousness is perfect, 
because it is a resistless, ever-present fact, like a full 
gushing fountain, springing unceasingly into existence. 



CHAPTER I. 

NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 

To sustain the views proposed in our introduction it 
becomes necessary briefly to treat of nervous and 
mental action, of association, and in some measure of 
deranged mental manifestation. It will be remembered, 
however, that only a cursory examination of these 
subjects will be made, and without special regard to 
systematic arrangement, because the subjects are 
treated of collaterally to the objects proposed. 

Sensation and Perception. 

For the mind to take cognisance of a fact or 
circumstance external to the body, an impression 
must first be made upon the nerve which produces a 
sensation ; the perception is then awakened, and 
consciousness is the result. Should attention be 
directed to the perception, it then becomes the subject 
of intellectual operation, ideas are formed, and memory 
records the fact or circumstance. 

Every perception of external relation creates an 
idea in the mind which becomes memory, and under 
2 



26 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

proper circumstances can be recalled and compared 
with other perceptions present* Muller says, " we 
know that every idea is a permanent, immutable 
impression in the brain, which may at any moment 
present itself anew if the mind be directed to it — if the 
'■ attention' be turned to it, and that it is merely the 
impossibility of the attention being occupied by many 
objects simultaneously that causes each to be forgotten. 
All these latent ideas must be regarded as impressions 
on the brain which cannot be effaced. Lesions of the 
brain may annul a part or all of these ideas." 

Impressions upon the sensitive nerves are trans- 
mitted in either a peripheral or centripetal direction, 
according to the part impressed. If upon the root or 
trunk, it is perceived at its extremity ; if upon the 
fibrils, the impression is transmitted to the nervous 
centre. An injury to the body of the ulnar nerve at 
the elbow is referred to the extremity or the nervous 
fibrils of the little finger, and is a familiar instance in 
point. It is a well known fact, that persons having 
lost their limbs, dream of sensations in the excised 
parts as vividly as though the members were in situ. 
The cause is either from an internal mental impression, 
or from an external mechanical irritation, as by 
pressure upon the nervous trunk. 



AND MENTAL ACTION. 27 



Phantasm. 



The reception of sensational impressions is, ac- 
cording to Muller, a mode of action of the sensational 
nerve. This corresponds with Combe's idea of certain 
properties of mental organs being a mode of activity 
with them. 

When a sensational organ is excited, either by- 
internal or external influences, the effect on the mind 
will be identical. The nerves of sensation stand, as it 
were, between the external impression and the internal 
idea. The retina, for instance, can be, in very many 
cases, excited as vividly by the inward influence as by 
the outward producing phantasm. To the mind, in 
such cases, facts only are presented, and to the organs 
of sense, ideas. 

There appears to be a nervous mode of action 
existing between the external impression and internal 
perception, having relation, on one hand, to the mind, 
and on the other, to the sensitive nervous extremities. 
When this mode is excited by an internal idea with 
sufficient intensity, the organ, as of vision, is thrown 
into its mode of action ; it actually sees the idea, 
returning it as a simple impression to the mind, and if 
this condition is not corrected by other mental powers, 
there is partial alienation. Should the action occur in 
sleep, a dream of the most vivid character will be 



28 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

induced. The idea is, as it were, reflected upon the 
sensational apparatus, exciting in it actual impressions, 
as observed by Spinosa, and attested by Muller, that 
images seen in dreams are sometimes still visible, and 
can be observed to disappear gradually to the waking 
eyes. Dreams that present us with the most vivid 
conceptions are those in which phantasms are produced. 
The internal excitement having operated upon the 
organs of sense, to produce the same result that 
corresponding external stimulus would have done, the 
memorial power is aroused the same as though we had 
actually seen, or heard, or felt the impression. 

Muller, in reviewing the phenomena of phantasm, 
says, " The facts already mentioned prove that the 
images seen in dreams, not the mere ideas of things 
conceived in dreams, are phenomena of the same kind 
as the phantasms. For the images which remain 
before the eyes when we awake are identical with the 
objects perceived in our dreams." 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, a 
Prussian bookseller named Nicolai, gave the most 
remarkable account of phantasm, which occurred in 
his own case, to be found on record. He says, " I 
saw, in a state of mind completely sound, and — after 
the first terror was over — with perfect calmness, for 
nearly two months, almost constantly and involuntarily, 
a vast number of human and other forms, and even 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 29 

heard their voices, though all this was merely the con- 
sequence of a diseased state of the nerves, and an 
irregular circulation of the blood. When I shut my 
eyes these phantasms would sometimes vanish entirely, 
though there were instances when I beheld them with 
my eyes closed ; yet, when they disappeared on such 
occasions, they generally returned when I opened my 
eyes. I conversed sometimes with my physician and 
my wife on the phantasms which at the moment sur- 
rounded me ; they appeared more frequently walking 
than at rest ; nor were they constantly present. They 
frequently did not come for some time, but always 
reappeared for a longer or shorter period, either singly 
or in company ; the latter, however, being most fre- 
quently the case. I generally saw human forms of 
both sexes, but they usually seemed not to take the 
smallest notice of each other, moving as in a market- 
place, where all are eager to press through the crowd ; 
at times, however, they seemed to be transacting 
business with each other. I also saw, several times, 
people on horseback, dogs, and birds. All these phan- 
tasms appeared to me in their natural size, and as dis- 
tinct as if alive, exhibiting different shades of carnation 
in their uncovered parts, as well as in different colors 
and fashions in their dresses, though the colors seemed 
somewhat paler than in real nature ; none of the 
figures appeared particularly terrible, comical, or dis- 



30 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

gusting, most of them being of an indifferent shape, and 
some presenting a pleasing aspect." 

Goethe, the celebrated German poet, possessed the 
rare faculty of producing phantasms at will. < He says, 
" When I close my eyes and depress my head, I could 
cause the image of a flower to appear in the middle of 
the field of vision ; this flower did not for a moment 
retain its first form, but unfolded itself, and developed 
from its interior new flowers, formed of colored or 
sometimes green leaves. These were not natural 
flowers, but of fantastic forms, although symmetrical 
as the rosettes of sculptors. I was unable to fix any 
one form, but the development of new flowers con- 
tinued as long as I desired it, without any variation in 
the rapidity of the changes. The same thing occurred 
when I figured to myself a variegated disk. The 
colored figures upon it underwent constant changes, 
which extended progressively from the centre towards 
the periphery, exactly like the changes in the modern 
kaleidoscope." 

In both these cases the objects were as actually seen 
by the visual apparatus as though they had been 
externally presented to the organ of vision. Through 
the central excitement the retina was thrown into its 
mode of action by the idea, and returned to the brain 
the phantasm as a simple fact. 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 31 

Reflex Action. 

Another mode of nervous action, but having less 
dependence on the brain than those just considered, is 
termed reflex. This action is a peculiar function of 
the spinal cord, and prolongs the natural movements 
of muscles associated for certain definite purposes, as 
of locomotion ; and when they are once set in opera- 
tion, do, by so slight a degree of sensation that it 
makes no impression on the sensorium commune, con- 
tinue to operate in the direction of the impulse, until 
changed by a mandate of the will, or arrested by 
physical obstruction. 

A good example of reflex and associate action occurs 
in the act of swallowing. When a morsel of food is 
carried so far back in the mouth as to impress the 
sensitive nerves of the fauces, the muscles of deglutition 
are immediately aroused, and not only act indepen- 
dently of the will, but they require its strongest effort 
to resist their movement if desired. 

Now, such action being independent of volition, it 
may, when once called into play, be continued by 
causes that do not affect the brain ; and, consequently, 
when a consecutive train of action is started, it may 
be prolonged independently of the will. This state 
may occur as well during sleep as in vigilance, for we 
know that the action of the muscles of organic life is 



32 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

maintained in sleep by this process ; the blood is pro- 
pelled by the heart, and respiration by the associate 
action of the muscles of the chest. 

The medulla oblongata is the seat of sensation and 
reflex action. Without the cerebrum animals will fly 
and walk, and yet appear as though asleep. Among 
the experiments of M. Flourens, we find that " an 
animal, in which the cerebral hemispheres have been 
removed, is in a state of stupor, but presents, neverthe- 
less, manifest signs of sensibility, and not merely of the 
reflection of impressions. It no longer performs any 
voluntary movements, but, when struck, it has all the 
manner of an animal waking from sleep. In whatever 
position it be placed it resumes the equilibrium. If 
laid upon the back, it rises again ; if pushed, it walks. 
If it be a bird, and we throw it up into the air, it flies ; 
if it be a frog, it leaps when touched. The animal has, 
doubtless, lost its memory, it no longer reasons ; but, 
nevertheless, it feels, and the sensations excite in it 
movements which are different from the phenomena 
of mere nervous reflection. Cuvier very aptly com- 
pares animals in this condition to a sleeping man ; he 
also seeks an easy position — he feels." 

Consensual or Associate Action. 

Consensual or associate muscular action consists in 
the contraction of a single muscle of a particular set 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 33 

being followed by a determinate movement of the 
others, independent of, and oftentimes contrary to the 
will : one eye, for instance, cannot be changed in its 
axis without being followed in the same direction by 
the other. The following experiments illustrate this 
mode of action. The first movement of the series is 
perforce produced, and the associate movements follow 
in consequence. " In a pigeon," M. Flourens " re- 
moved both cerebral hemispheres ; loss of vision im- 
mediately ensued, with general loss of power, which, 
however, was neither considerable nor persistent. 
The pigeon flew when it was thrown into the air ; 
walked when it was pushed. The iris had its power 
of motion in both eyes ; the animal was deaf, and it 
did not move spontaneously, but had constantly the 
manner of a sleeping animal, and, when irritated, it 
resembled in its motions an animal just awaking. In 
whatever position it was placed, it resumed its equi- 
librium ; if laid upon the back, it got upon its feet 
again ; water being put into its beak, it swallowed it ; 
and it resisted attempts to open its beak." " He likens 
the pigeon in this condition to an animal condemned 
to perpetual sleep, but without the faculty of dreaming."* 
" M. Hertwig removed the upper part of the 
hemispheres in a pigeon ; sight and hearing were 

* Mullens Physiology. 
2* 



34 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

abolished, and the animal sat in one spot as if asleep. 
He fed it : peas, if placed merely within the beak, 
were not swallowed ; but if laid upon the tongue, they 
were (owing to reflex action) ; the muscles were but 
slightly enfeebled ; the bird stood firmly, and flew 
when thrown into the air. This state endured for a 
fortnight, when the hearing and sensibility in a great 
measure returned ; this pigeon lived three months." 
" A hen, in which he had cut off both hemispheres 
nearly to the base of the brain, was found to be 
deprived of sight, hearing, taste, and smell ; it sat 
constantly in one spot, and was as if dead until 
strongly roused, when it moved a few steps. The 
animal lived in this state of stupor, without its senses 
being restored, for three months."* 

Mental Action. 

Mental action does not consist of light, or sound, or 
touch ; for none of these existences reach the brain : 
but of ideas originating from the stimulus of perception 
acting upon the mental organ. Out of ideas thus 
created, the mind forms its images of fancy in harmony 
with the leading or originating idea, modified by 
individual temperament. Thus the idea excited by 
music may associate in the mental process, the sombre 

* Muller's Physiology. 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 35 

light of a cathedral, the brilliant dazzle of the assembly, 
or the red volcanic fires of the battle-field — not merely 
as the strain may vary, but in harmony with the indi- 
vidual mental character. 

We seldom enjoy the delights arising from the gra- 
tification of one sense, without ideas peculiar to 
others being excited in the mind. This excitement is 
awakened by arousing the memory, which at once 
combines and associates the whole to produce the 
mental result. 

Ideas depend in a great degree for their perfection 
upon the integrity of the senses, because the mind can 
have no conception of light, for example, unless 
memory can recall its influence ; and where the organ 
of vision never existed, there is nothing of this influ- 
ence to be associated in the mental operations, and so 
it is with all the other special sensations. 

The deaf do not dream of sounds, nor the blind of 
sights, when deafness and blindness are congenital. 
Where a sense has never existed there can be no idea 
of its phenomena in the mind, and of consequence 
there can be no memory regarding it. The most lucid 
mental perceptions we experience, and those the 
longest retained, arise from direct impressions upon 
the organs of sense. To illustrate — we might have the 
colors and form of the rainbow described by the most 
profound philosopher that ever existed, and couched in 



3b SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

the language of an exuberant imagination ; and we 
might have often seen its primary colors, and be per- 
fectly familiar with the form of the arch ; yet its 
gorgeous glow and sublime proportions as it appears in 
the heavens, would be faintly portrayed to the mind ; 
the whole conception would arise from an intellectual 
operation, without the foundation upon which an idea 
can permanently rest, and there would be very little to 
place in the storehouse of memory : but let the organ 
of vision once take an impression of the bow of promise, 
and the idea springs from a source that will last as long 
as the integrity of the mind endures. 

When intellectual operations depend upon internal 
impressions for their stimulus, as during sound sleep, 
they are deprived of the imperishable quality imparted 
by external sense ; but when they occur during the 
stages of slumber or dreaming, they are remembered 
just in proportion to the susceptibility of the senses 
providing stimulus of action. 

Dr. George Moore says : " The action and reaction 
between mind and body are incessant, since there is 
not a moment, either in our waking or sleeping expe- 
rience, when the nerves are not agitated by ideas." 
And Dr. Dendy says, that " mind is not the product of 
organization, but it works by and through it ; and 
therefore for its earthly uses, cannot be independent of 
the qualities of matter." Although matter has its 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 37 

influence upon mind, still the mental reaction is such 
as to control its special organ, the brain, and even to 
exert an extraordinary influence upon the whole animal 
economy. If the mind is immaterial, it is necessarily 
divested of inertness, the distinguishing quality of 
matter, and must therefore be altogether absent from 
the body during sleep, or its organ must be in ceaseless 
activity. The mind being immaterial, both it and its 
immediate organ are absolutely sleepless. 

This idea is beautifully expressed in the following 
stanza. Poetry has its philosophy, and we often find 
the imagery of the poet imbued with the severest 
reason : 

" Though thy slumber may be deep, 
Yet thy spirit shall not sleep ; 
There are shades which will not vanish, 
There are thoughts thou canst not banish." 

Deranged Mental Operation. 

Deranged mental operations depend more upon an 
exalted condition of the propensities and sentiments, 
than upon external appliances. When the mind is thus 
excited, impressions received through the external 
senses seem to impair the perception so much, that it 
conveys to the reflective powers so little of objective 
reality, that they are left to regulate their own opera- 
tions by the internal workings of diseased organs. 



38 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

Actions flowing from such a state of mind, stamp 
upon the individual the character of insanity. 

Now in what does such a state of mind differ from 
that of sound sleep? It differs in the circumstance, 
that external relation is by sleep withheld from the 
reflective faculties merely, while sleep continues, and 
the organs of feeling are in a healthy condition, but for 
a limited period permitted, as it were, to run at will, 
free from the restraints of rigid reason. 

Insane persons appear to be only momentarily influ- 
enced in their mental manifestations by physical pain ; 
but in sleep, it is a common cause of a connected train 
of thought during a long dream. Dr. Gregory, having 
applied a bottle of hot water to his feet, dreamed that 
he made the ascent of Mount vEtna; and a blister 
applied to the nape of the neck caused the patient to 
dream of being scalped by Indians. From the circum- 
stance that the thoughts of the insane are excited more 
by internal than external sensations, we should con- 
clude that the memory of a diseased is less active than 
of a healthy brain. 

Between dreaming and insanity, there is a singular 
resemblance. The brain, when diseased, does, through 
its exalted internal sensations, excite in the waking 
mind the same irregularity of ideas which arise in 
dreams when the regulating power — the external 
senses — is withheld. In hallucination the external 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 39 

is overpowered by the internal stimulus, but not 
obliterated. 

The hallucination of Tasso, as related by Manso, 
Marquis of Villa, will illustrate this position : " Tasso 
in his delirium believed that he conversed with familiar 
spirits. One day, when the Marquis endeavored to 
drive these ideas from his mind, Tasso said to him, 
' Since I cannot convince you by reason, I shall do so 
by experience ; I shall cause the spirit, in which you 
refuse to believe, to appear to your own eyes.' I 
accepted the offer, says the Marquis, and next day, 
when we sat by the fire conversing, he turned his eyes 
towards the window, and looking with steadfast atten- 
tion, appeared so completely absorbed, that when I 
called to him, he did not answer. ' See !' said he, at 
length, ' See ! my familiar spirit comes to converse 
with me.' I looked with the greatest earnestness, but 
could see nothing enter the apartment. In the mean- 
time, Tasso began to converse with this mysterious 
being. I saw and heard himself alone. Sometimes he 
questioned, and sometimes answered ; and from his 
answers, I gathered the sense of what he had heard. 
The subject of his discourse was so elevated, and the 
expressions so sublime, that I felt myself in a kind 
of ecstasy. I did not venture to interrupt him, nor to 
trouble him with questions, and a considerable time 
elapsed before the spirit disappeared. I was informed 



40 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

of its departure by Tasso, who, turning towards me, 
said, * In future you will cease to doubt.' ' Rather,' 
said I, 'I shall be more sceptical, for although I have 
heard astonishing words, I have seen nothing.' Smiling, 
he replied, ' You have perhaps heard or seen more 
than .' He stopped short ; and, fearing to impor- 
tune him by my questions, I dropped the conversation." 
Tasso was awake ; but having a diseased mental 
organ, he was insane ; his external senses were intact, 
but the intellectual being received impressions from 
disordered organs of internal sensations ; and the 
objects presented to his mind were paramount to the 
words of Manso. He did not acknowledge external 
stimuli, because his mind was too much absorbed with 
the delusion. Here, also, a dissimilarity, as well as 
resemblance between dreaming and insanity, is clearly 
observable. In sound sleep, when the sensational 
organs are inactive, mental occurrences are not 
remembered. In this case, though Tasso did not 
acknowledge a perception of realities, and was occu- 
pied entirely by creations of his own fancy, still, the 
nerves of sense were perfect, and had an influence ; 
a remembrance of what passed in his mind was 
retained from one paroxysm to another. " The subject 
of the discourse," said Manso, " was so elevated, and 
the expressions so sublime, that I felt myself in a 
kind of ecstasy." Such elevation and sublimity are 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 41 

to be obtained under circumstances of mental abstrac- 
tion to a degree only found in dreaming, or in the 
operations of a diseased brain. 

Rapidity of Mental Action. 

The astonishing rapidity with which the mind acts, 
and the almost unlimited power of expansion with 
which it is endowed under certain circumstances, is of 
peculiar interest. The conditions best adapted to 
develope its resources in these particulars, are probably, 

First, cerebral congestion induced by drowning or 
hanging. 

Second, great personal danger. 

Third, insanity ; and 

Fourth, dreaming. 

We believe that the greatest expansion of thought is 
connected with the last condition, and the greatest 
rapidity with the second. In the first, the mind appears 
to be calm, but highly imaginative in its operations ; 
and in the third to partake largely of the qualities of 
the fourth, in many instances. 

To illustrate, we will select a few instances as nearly 
in point as possible. 

Rapidity of mental action is often experienced on 
occasions of great personal danger, and almost always 
turns upon a review of the past life of the individual, 



42 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

in which incidents the most trifling are brought dis- 
tinctly before the mind, which occurred at remote 
periods, and each circumstance in the order of its 
occurrence. This has often been experienced in falls 
from elevated positions, as the roofs of buildings, which 
could have occupied but a very few seconds of time 
in the descent. An old sea-captain once related to 
me, that during a fall from the rigging of a vessel, from 
which he barely escaped destruction, he distinctly 
remembered every act of his life, even the purloining 
of fruit from the neighboring orchards, and the depre- 
dations upon hen-roosts, as well as the maternal admo- 
nitions inflicted for his juvenile delinquencies. 

"I was once told," says the English opium-eater, 
" by a near relative of mine, that, having in her child- 
hood fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of 
death but for the critical assistance which reached her, 
she saw in a moment her whole life in its minutest 
incidents arrayed before her simultaneously, as in a 
mirror, and she had a faculty developed as suddenly 
for comprehending the whole and every part." 

Dr. George Moore relates the case " of a person who 
had been hung and cut down on a reprieve, who being 
asked what were his sensations, stated, that the pre- 
parations were dreadful beyond expression, but that on 
being dropped, he instantly found, himself amid fields 
and rivers of blood, which gradually acquired a greenish 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 43 

tinge. Imagining that if he could reach a certain spot 
he should be easy, he seemed to himself to struggle 
forcibly to attain it, and then he felt no more." 

Dr. Binns says, " We are acquainted with a gentle- 
man, who, being able to swim but little, ventured too 
far out and became exhausted. His alarm was great ; 
and after making several strenuous but ill-directed 
efforts to regain the shore, he shouted for assistance, 
and then sank, as he supposed, to rise no more. The 
noise of the water in his ears was at first horrible, and 
the idea of death, and such a death ! terrific in the 
extreme. He felt himself sinking as if for an age, 
and descent, it seemed, would have no end. But this 
frightful state passed away. His senses became 
steeped in light. Innumerable and beautiful visions 
presented themselves to his imagination^ Luminous 
aerial shapes accompanied him through embowering 
groves of graceful trees, while soft music, as if breathed 
from their leaves, moved his spirit to voluptuous repose. 
Marble colonnades, light-pierced vistas, soft grass walks, 
picturesque groups of angelic beings, gorgeously 
plumaged birds, golden fish that swam in purple waters, 
and glistening fruit that hung from latticed arbors, 
were seen, admired, and passed. Then the vision 
changed, and he saw, as if in a wide field, the acts of 
his own being, from the first dawn of memory to the 
moment when he entered the water. They were all 



44 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

grouped and ranged in the order of the succession of 
their happening, and he read the whole volume of 
existence at a glance ; nay, its incidents and entities 
were photographed on his mind, limned in light, and 
the panorama of the battle of life lay before him. From 
this condition of beatitude, at least, these were the last 
sensations he could remember ; he awoke to conscious- 
ness, and consequently to pain, agony, and disappoint- 
ment." 

Dr. Clark said, " I was once drowned." # * * 
" I saw my danger, but thought the mare would swim, 
and I knew I could ride when we were overwhelmed. 
It appeared to me that I had gone to the bottom with 
my eyes open. At first I thought I saw the bottom 
clearly, and then felt neither apprehension nor pain ; 
on the contrary, I felt as if I had been in the most de- 
lightful situation ; my mind was tranquil and uncom- 
monly happy. I felt as if in Paradise, and yet I do not 
recollect that I saw any person ; the impression of 
happiness seemed not to be derived from anything 
around me, but from the state of my mind. And yet I 
had a general apprehension of pleasing objects ; and 
I cannot recollect that anything appeared defined, nor 
did my eye take in any object, only I had a general 
impression of a green color, as of fields or gardens. 
But my happiness did not appear to arise from these, 
but appeared to consist merely in the tranquil — inde- 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 45 

scribably tranquil state of mind. By-and-by I seemed 
to awake, as out of slumber, and felt unutterable pain 
and difficulty of breathing; and now I found I had 
been carried by a strong wave, and left in very shallow 
water on the shore, and the pain I felt was occasioned 
by the air once more inflating my lungs and producing 
respiration. How long I had been under water I can- 
not tell ; it may, however, be guessed at by the circum- 
stance ; when restored to the power oP reflection, I 
looked at the mare, and saw her walking leisurely 
down shore towards home, then about half a mile 
distant from the place where we were submerged." 

In the two instances last related, the actual period 
consumed must have been exceedingly short ; and we 
know that the mind, in its ordinary state, would have 
required a lapse, commensurate in some degree with 
the consideration of the objects presented. But in 
these cases it certainly did not. Upon the authority 
of Dr. Roget, " if the whole period of submersion has 
not exceeded five minutes, efforts of resuscitation, if 
properly conducted, will generally prove successful." 
But submersion of a much shorter time than five 
minutes produces all the appearances of death, and is 
so, at least so far as memory is concerned. It is even 
probable that the period of consciousness of external 
relation is greatly short of this, from the fact, that in 



46 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

some instances there is no recollection of anything 
after submersion. 

The rapidity of mental action occurring in dreams, 
where events, which in their actual development 
would occupy hours, days, nay, even years, are com- 
pressed and comprehended sometimes in a few minutes 
or even seconds, is finely illustrated in the dream of 
Count Lavalette. " One night," he says, "while I was 
asleep, the clock of the Palais de Justice struck twelve, 
and awoke me. I heard the gate open to relieve the 
sentry, but I fell asleep again immediately. In this 
sleep I dreamed that I was -standing in the Rue St. 
Honore, at the corner of the Rue de l'Echelle. A 
melancholy darkness spread around ; all was still. 
Nevertheless, a low and uncertain sound soon arose. 
All of a sudden I perceived, at the bottom of the street, 
and advancing towards me, a troop of cavalry ; the 
men and horses, however, all flayed. The men held 
torches in their hands, the flames of which illuminated 
faces without skin, and with bloody muscles. Their 
hollow eyes rolled in their large sockets, their mouths 
opened from ear to ear, and helmets of hanging flesh 
covered their hideous heads. The horses dragged 
along their own skins in the kennels, which overflowed 
with blood on both sides. Pale and dishevelled women 
appeared and disappeared alternately at the windows 
in dismal silence ; low, inarticulate groans filled the 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 47 

air, and I remained in the street alone, petrified with 
horror, and deprived of strength sufficient to seek ray 
safety by flight. This horrible troop continued passing 
in rapid gallop, and casting frightful looks on me. 
Their march, I thought, continued for five hours, and 
they were followed by an immense number of artillery 
wagons, full of bleeding" corpses, whose limbs still 
quivered. A disgusting smell of blood and bitumen 
almost choked me. At length, the iron gate of the 
prison, shutting with great force, awoke me again. I 
made my repeater strike ; it was no more than mid- 
night, so that the horrible phantasmagoria had lasted 
no more than ten minutes ; that is to say, the time 
necessary for relieving the sentry and shutting the 
gate. The cold was severe and the watchword short. 
The next day the turnkey confirmed my calculations. 
I, nevertheless, do not remember one single event in 
my life, the duration of which I have been able more 
exactly to calculate." 

The expansive property of mind, when acting under 
the double influence of a powerful imagination excited 
by opium, and divested by sleep of restraints from 
without, is finely drawn in the following extract from 
the " Confessions of the English Opium Eater." 

" Southern Asia is, and has been for thousands of 
years, the part of the earth most swarming with human 
life — the great officina gentium. Man is a weed in 



48 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

those regions. The vast empires, also, into which the 
enormous population of Asia has always been cast, 
give a further sublimity to the feelings associated with 
all Oriental names or images. In China, over and 
above what it has in common with the rest of Southern 
Asia, I am terrified by the modes of life, by the man- 
ners, and the barrier of utter abhorrence and want of 
sympathy placed between us by feelings deeper than I 
can analyse. I could sooner live with lunatics or 
brute animals. All this, and much more than I can 
say, or have time to say, the reader must enter into 
before he can comprehend the unimaginable horror 
which these dreams of Oriental imagery and mytholo- 
gical tortures impressed upon me. Under the con? 
flicting feelings of tropical heat and vertical sun-lights, 
I brought together all creatures, birds, beasts, reptiles, 
all trees and plants, usages and appearances, that are 
found in all tropical regions, and assembled them 
together in China or Indoostan. From kindred 
feelings I soon brought Egypt and all her gods under 
the same law. I was stared at, hooted at, grinned at, 
chattered at, by monkeys, by paroquets, by cockatoos. 
I ran into pagodas, and was fixed for centuries at the 
summit or in the secret rooms ; I was the idol ; I was 
the priest ; I was worshipped ; I was sacrificed. I fled 
from the wrath of Brama through all the forests of 
Asia : Vishnu hated me ; Seva laid in wait for me. I 



NERVOUS AND MENTAL ACTION. 4Q 

came suddenly upon Isis and Osiris ; I had done a 
deed, they said, which the ibis and the crocodile 
trembled at. I was buried for a thousand years in 
stone coffins, with mummies and sphinxes, in narrow 
chambers, at the heart of eternal pyramids. I was 
kissed with cancerous kisses by crocodiles, and. laid 
confounded with all unutterable slimy things, amongst 
reeds and Nilotic mud." 

Cases of insanity also furnish many instances of this 
peculiarity of mind. " All my imagination," says the 
Rev. Robert Hall, in allusion to an attack of mania. 
" has been overstretched. You, with the rest of my 
friends, tell me that I was only seven weeks in confine- 
ment, and the date of the year corresponds, so that I 
am bound to believe you, but they have appeared to 
me like seven years. My mind was so excited, and 
my imagination so lively and acute, that more ideas 
passed through my mind during those seven weeks, 
than in any seven years of my life. Whatever I had 
obtained from reading or reflection was present to me." 



CHAPTER II. 



Gall says, " sleep is merely the inactivity, the 
perfect repose of the brain in health. During this sus- 
pension of the cerebral functions, the brain acquires 
new force, and on awaking, its functions take place 
rapidly." 

Dendy says, " sleep expresses that condition which 
is marked by a cessation of certain mental manifesta- 
tions, coincident with the degree of oppression ; for it 
is an error to say that the body sleeps ; it is the brain 
only, perhaps I may say the cerebrum, or the fore 
lobes ; for I believe the lower part of it (that which 
imparts an energy to the process of breathing and 
blood circulation) is never in a complete sleep, but 
merely in a state of languor, or rather of repose, suf- 
ficient for its restoration ; if it were to sleep, death 
would be the result." And again, "sleep is, indeed, 
the reality of another existence." 

Sir Thos. Brown affirms " that we are somewhat 
more than ourselves in our sleep, and the slumber of 
the body seems to be but the waking of the soul. It is 



SLEEP. 51 

the negation of sense, but the liberty of reason ; and 
our waking conceptions do not match the fancies of 
our sleeps." 

Scaliger, an eminent Italian physician of the 15th 
century, describes sleep to be " a rest or binding of the 
outward senses, and of the common sense, for the pre- 
servation of body and soul." This definition, in some 
respects, is the most philosophical to be found ; for sleep 
does, so far as we are able to comprehend, consist in 
this binding of the "outward senses and of the com- 
mon sense" as a leading characteristic of its phe- 
nomena. 

But Richerand has more nearly defined sleep than 
any other philosopher. He says that "sleep is the 
repose of the organs of sense and voluntary motion." 
Had he limited this repose to the organs of sense, he 
would have more nearly approximated the fact of what 
sleep is, than by involving voluntary motion ; which 
does not necessarily repose during sleep, as somnambu- 
lism is a common occurrence, and change of posture is 
usual with most persons. 

To define sleep, qualities negative as well as posi- 
tive must be embraced. Sleep is that condition of ex- 
istence, in which the mind is separated from external 
things ; and although the mind is uninfluenced by 
circumstances from without, still it is not inactive, but 
(as will afterwards appear) ceaselessly operative. The 



52 SLEEP PYSCHoLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

mind has sources of stimulus in the various internal 
sensations, which, during sleep, influence and control 
it, at least so far as their powers extend, with as much 
vigor as during wakefulness. It is also modified, as 
well as diversified in its operations, by the recollection 
of things past, which have become the subjects of 
memory. In short, we would say that perfect sleep 
consists in the abeyance of the functions of the organs 
of external sense — at least an ordinary activity of the 
organs of internal sensation — a full perception by the 
intellectual faculties of their appropriate stimuli, and a 
loss of memory during its continuance. 

Sleep is a part of the animal constitution, and has 
its necessity in our organization. Sleepiness, ceteris 
paribus, is in proportion to age. Infants pass most of 
their time in sleep ; youth requires more than manhood, 
and manhood more than old age. Variations of this 
general law exist in idiosyncrasies and pathological 
conditions which interrupt the normal condition. 

Nutrition and sleep are intimately connected. In 
the season of life when the growth of the body is most 
vigorous, more sleep is requisite than when this period 
has been displaced by one in which only the wastes of 
the organization are to be repaired, and this also re- 
quires more than when the recuperative energy has 
given place to gradual decay. 

The necessity for sleep does not depend upon the 



SLEEP. 53 

amount of food consumed, but upon the quantity re- 
quired for the purposes of nutrition. Many old per- 
sons eat enormously ; notwithstanding they daily be- 
come more emaciated, but are nevertheless in ordi- 
narily good health, and pass but little time in sleep. 
Analogous cases are common among the insane. 
Their flesh wastes ; they sleep but little, and yet con- 
sume, when unrestrained, almost incredible quantities 
of food. 

Lord Stanhope, in speaking of the causes of the 
restoration produced by sleep, says that " the refresh- 
ment which it produces is very different from that 
which is derived from food, which may supply as large 
a quantity of arterial blood. A person may live some 
days without any food, and for a considerable time 
with only a small quantity, but he cannot long exist 
without sleep. The refreshment does not arise merely 
from repose of the body or of the mind, for in some 
persons the latter is always very active, and the for- 
mer, though it may continue to be so for many hours, 
is not revived by sleep, but feels languor, if not lassitude." 

Probably on some occasion, every one has felt the 
bad effects of sleeplessness on his physical powers. 
In some instances of the disease popularly termed 
"ship fever" (typhus), we have known patients to 
sleep soundly, and on awaking, experience no relief 
from the excessive weariness that oppressed them. 



54 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

But what was most remarkable, they were entirely 
unconscious of having slept, and denied the fact, 
although their attendants knew that this, even for 
hours, had been the case. The physical being did sleep 
most perfectly, but the influence of the disease coun- 
teracted its ordinary beneficial effect. 

Duration of sleep is influenced by many causes, and, 
under certain circumstances, varies as much in one as 
in different individuals. " Dr. Plot," as copied by Dr. 
Binns, " relates the case of a poor girl, eight years old, 
who, being beaten by a severe step-mother, and sent 
hungry with some refreshments to her father in the 
fields, could not refrain from eating part of them. Re- 
flecting afterwards on the probable consequences of 
her conduct, she proceeded no further on her way, but 
retired to a neighboring wood, and there fell into a 
profound sleep, being oppressed with fear and sorrow : 
in this state she remained for seven days, and when 
discovered, showed no symptoms of life, besides the 
softness of her flesh and the flexibility of her joints. 
Dan. Ludovicus, from whom Dr. Plot borrows this re- 
lation, happening to be present, succeeded in his 
attempts to recover this poor creature. The same 
author has also preserved another instance of a sleeper, 
in the circle of his own acquaintance. This is the 
history of Mary Foster, of Amsterdam. She remained 
in a profound sleep for fourteen days and nights, after 



an equal period of fear and anxiety, occasioned by her 
falling casually into a well ; and the accident seems to 
have produced in her a disposition to torpor ; for two 
years after, she slept two nights and a day at Ut- 
toxeter." 

Constitutionally some individuals require but very 
little sleep. Bonaparte, Pichegru, and Scipio may be 
mentioned among many others, in whom the recupera- 
tive energy of the system was sufficient to restore its 
equilibrium in much less time than is ordinarily re- 
quired. 

It would appear from the result in cases where sleep 
is too long withheld, that, primarily, the body receives 
and sustains a deleterious shock, and the mind becomes 
affected by the impaired physical condition. Sleep is 
a phenomenon of the organs of external relation, es- 
tablished for the resuscitation of the voluntary part of 
our physical constitution, leaving the organic system 
unchanged, except in its relation with the organs of 
animal life. Irritability and intensity of mental action 
increase with wakefulness, and unless subdued by sleep 
they will goad the brain into disease, terminating in 
madness. For 

" Who can wrestle against sleep ? — yet 
Is that giant very gentleness." 

It is reasonable to infer, that the mind suffers because 



56 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

connected with a sleepless body — not because it does 
not sleep, for it is immaterial and cannot rest. 

When we come to speak of stimuli operating on the 
nerves of external sense during the stages of slumber 
and dreaming, we shall regard the fact, that some of 
the nerves of sense have more intimate relation with 
the organs of mind than others. The optic, for in- 
stance, has its origin direct from the brain itself, and is 
in more perfect communion with the intellectual being 
than any other inlet to the mind. In truth it is the 

" Window of the souk" 

Cabanis says that the senses fall asleep in a regular 
series of periods, each having its proper time, so that 
some of them are passive, while others are still active. 
And most physiologists agree with him that the organ 
of sight is the first to sleep. Whether this be so, may 
be questionable ; but it undoubtedly is the most im- 
portant one to render inactive that sleep may follow, 
and the only organ of sense subject to- the will ; conse- 
quently, it is, through volition, closed to its natural 
stimulus. But the closure of the lids does not preclude 
the influence of light absolutely, for through the lids 
an impression of light more or less strong, is transmit- 
ted. Persons unaccustomed to sleep with a light in 
their dormitory, find themselves much troubled to 
obtain sleep under its influence ; and when obtained, 



SLEEP. 57 

they are unusually disturbed by dreams more vivid 
than are common with them under other circumstances. 
The only reasonable method" to account for this result 
is, that although their eyes are closed, still a sufficient 
amount of light is admitted through the translucent 
palpebra, to stimulate the mind with ideas of vision and 
their associate operations. 

Of all the senses, the influence of sight upon the 
mind is the most difficult to control ; and it is the only 
sense upon which volition directly operates. The other 
senses (possibly of smell excepted) have their connex- 
ion with the brain through the medulla oblongata, and 
their impressions may fall on the mind in a modified 
degree. It is doubtful whether we attempt to close 
any other organ of external sense against its ordinary 
stimulus. 

The organ of hearing, if affected at all by volition, 
is by the power of abstracting the mind from outward 
impressions ; but to prevent the vibrations of sound 
falling upon the tympanum is impossible by any effort 
of the will ; therefore, whatever power we may possess 
in regard to this sense, as well as smell, taste, and 
touch, must depend upon the faculty of concentrating 
the mind upon subjects unconnected with their im- 
pressions. The ear probably transmits its impressions 
to the mind much longer than any other external 
organ. 

3* 



58 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

Causes. 

The cause of sleep, being involved in the great mys- 
tery of our being, we again recur to the subject merely 
to correct what we consider an error of some physiolo- 
gists on this point. Their view is, that the cause exists 
in venous congestion of the brain. This idea undoubt- 
edly arose from the fact, that arterial action is de- 
creased during sleep. Now we suppose this change in 
the circulation to be an effect, and not a cause ; for if 
admitted to be a cause, what power is there in the sys- 
tem adequate to arrest its increase ? The greater the 
congestion, the less power there must be in the econo- 
my to relieve the engorgement ; and if, as they believe, 
when it reaches a certain degree of accumulation, 
nature, by its own struggles, relieves itself and the per- 
son awakes, is it not very remarkable that there should 
be no symptoms of congestion having existed? The 
doctrine of stagnation of the blood, either in the brain 
or about the heart or lungs, as either cause or effect of 
any normal function, we believe to be -entirely hypo- 
thetical. 

Induction. 

Gullen says that " if the mind is attached to a single 
sensation, it is brought very nearly to the state of the 
total absence of impression." 



SLEEP. INDUCTION. 59 

According to Willich, " sleep is promoted by tran- 
quillity of mind, by the absence of every stimulus to 
the body, by silence and darkness around us, and by a 
complete rest of the senses ; by gently and uniformly 
affecting one of the senses ; for instance, by music or 
reading ; and lastly, by a gentle external motion of the 
whole body, as by rocking or sailing." 

Wordsworth says sleep may be induced by " the con- 
tinuous passage of a flock of sheep, the passing of a 
herd of oxen, a flight of birds, and even the ocean," 
his " grand monotonous idea." 

" If I could arrest," says Catlow, " the attention of 
any of my audience, so that he would think of nothing 
but what I was doing at the moment, I could prick 
him with pins without his feeling it. And if the act of 
attention were continued too long — longer than is 
compatible with the individual constitution of the mind, 
I could suspend the sensibilities altogether, and produce 
sleep — which varies according to the impressions on 
the senses through which I isolate or monopolize the 
attention." 

" I have," we find in Macnish's Philosophy of Sleep, 
" often coaxed myself to sleep by internally repeating 
half a dozen times, any well-known rhyme. While 
doing so, the ideas must be strictly directed to this 
particular theme, and prevented from wandering ; for 
sometimes during the process of repetition, the mind 



60 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED, 

takes a strange turn, and performs two offices at the 
same time, being directed to the rhyme on one hand 7 
and something else on the other ; and it will be found 
that the hold it has of the former is always much 
weaker than of the latter. The great secret is, by a 
strong effort of the will, to compel it to depart from 
the favorite train of thought into which it has run, 
and address itself solely to the verbal repetition of 
what is substituted in its place. If this is persevered 
in, it will generally be found to succeed ; and I would 
recommend all those who are prevented from sleeping 
in consequence of too active a flow of ideas, to try the 
experiment. It has been already remarked, the more 
the mind is brought to turn upon a single impression, 
the more closely it is made to approach to the state of 
sleep, which is the total absence of all impression." 

Gardener's directions, as advocated by Dr. Binns in 
his " Anatomy of Sleep," are that the person " turn on 
his right side, place his head comfortably on the pillow, 
so that it exactly occupies the angle a line drawn from 
the head to the shoulder would form, and then slightly 
closing his lips, take rather a full inspiration, breathing 
as much as he possibly can through the nostrils. This, 
however, is not absolutely necessary, as some persons 
breathe always through their mouths during sleep, and 
rest as sound as those who do not. Having taken a 
full inspiration, the lungs are then to be left to their 



SLEEP. INDUCTION. 61 

own action — that is, the respiration is neither to be 
accelerated nor retarded too much ; but a very full in- 
spiration must be taken. The attention must now be 
fixed upon the action in which the patient is engaged. 
He must depict to himself that he sees the breath pass- 
ing from his nostrils in a continuous stream, and the 
very instant that he brings his mind to conceive this 
apart from all other ideas, consciousness and memory 
depart ; imagination slumbers ; fancy becomes dor- 
mant ; thought ceases ; the sentient faculties lose their 
susceptibility ; the vital or ganglionic system assumes 
the sovereignty ; and as before remarked, he no longer 
wakes, but sleeps. For the instant the mind is brought 
to the contemplation of a single sensation, that instant 
the sensorium abdicates the throne, and the hypnotic 
faculty steeps it in oblivion." 

Sleep may be induced by attentively listening to the 
click of a clock, and by attempts to repeat the alphabet 
backwards, not an easy task to those unaccustomed to 
it. But although so many rules for the benefit of the 
sleepless have been promulgated, still it will be found 
that each individual requires a formula adapted to his 
own particular temperament, and which, from necessity, 
he will ultimately discover for himself. 

Essentially, there 'is no difference between these 
several suggestions. They all depend upon some plan 
whereby the mind is ultimately brought to a single idea, 



82 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

monotonous in character, and there steadily held, until 
sleep is induced by a normal act of our constitution. 
The mind undoubtedly always arrives at just such a 
crisis, whether we will it or not, before sleep takes pos- 
session of the sensational organs, and then it is again 
free to rove through its diversified operations. 

Divisions. 

Various distinctions have been made in the nature 
of sleep, based upon preconceived theories of its cause ; 
and they are treated of under the heads of natural and 
morbid : — but this division is dependent upon the proxi- 
mate cause — not upon its natural phenomena. The 
exercise of the voluntary muscular texture, and the 
action of the mental organs, when carried to that de- 
gree of fatigue which induces sleep, is termed a natural, 
and that prostration arising from the use of narcotics 
terminating in sleep, is called a morbid condition : — but 
the veiled essence of sleep is the same, whether induced 
by natural and healthy means, or produced by morbid 
influences. In either case, the external phenomenon 
of sleep is involuntary abstractedness to surrounding 
objects, whose ordinary influences are not, for the time 
being, transmitted to the sensorium, but the recollection 
of them may, nevertheless, act with great power upon 
our sleeping existence. 



SLEEP.— STAGES. 63 

Stages of Sleep. 

To present a more perfect view of the phenomena 
of sleep, it will be necessary to examine its several 
stages in detail, and from the facts presented, to draw 
such conclusions as the premises will justify. 
• Ordinarily, sleep presents a succession of stages ; but 
before we proceed to examine them separately, we will 
remark that we may continue for a considerable period 
in either of them. The weary, listless sensation pre- 
ceding slumber, may be prolonged by resistance, or 
shortened by acquiescence. Slumber will be long in 
anticipating a more perfect state when sleep is induced 
as a luxury before exhaustion has rendered it necessary. 
The stage of dreaming is often extended to several 
hours when the more perfect condition is not required 
or is interrupted. The stage of torpor extends from a 
natural, healthy period, to days, weeks, and even to 
months. But when sleep has been resisted as long as 
nature will permit, we imperceptibly glide through the 
preceding stages, and fall into that of forgetfulness, or 
torpor, even against our will. This is often the case 
with sailors, when the vessel is insufficiently manned, 
or when vigilant service has been demanded for many 
days in succession, requiring long watches, and per- 
mitting but short intervals for rest. Impenetrable 
sleep will overtake them while on duty, and a state of 



64 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

torpor from which they cannot be aroused at the pro» 
per time, will occupy the hours allotted to their rest. 

Captain Edward Marshall, of the packet ship Europe, 
related to me the following circumstances, which 
occurred on board his ship on her voyage, a few years 
since, from Liverpool to New York. The vessel had 
sustained a violent storm for fifteen consecutive days^, 
while in St. George's Channel, when she made the port 
of Cork in distress. The ship had a full complement 
of men, but owing to the necessity of tacking every 
three or four hours, the crew was kept on duty almost 
without intermission. The sailors at length became so 
exhausted, that they would fall asleep while at their 
posts, and the difficulty of arousing them was very 
great. The master, in speaking of himself, said, that 
before they made port, whenever he laid his arm upon 
the gunwales to rest, he was almost certain to fall 
asleep, to prevent which he was obliged to take every 
precaution ; yet notwithstanding, he was occasionally 
aroused from an unconscious state by coming in contact 
with portions of the ship. Through exhaustion and 
the impossibility of remaining awake, on arriving at 
Cork, his effective men were reduced to five in num- 
ber, and these could have sustained the incessant de- 
mands upon their vigilance but for a short time longer. 



SLEEP. LASSITUDE SLUMBER. 65 

The order in which the stages of sleep arise is. 
Lassitude, 
Slumber, 
Dreaming, 
Torpor. 

Lassitude. 

Lassitude is that sensation of heaviness, weariness, 
or listlessness, which precedes and invites to a recum- 
bent bodily posture. After the hours intended by na- 
ture for active pursuits are spent, an inward sense of 
weariness arises, warning us that a period of rest is 
necessary; and this feeling of weariness, drowsiness, 
or lassitude, is the forerunner of a more perfect condi- 
tion of quiescence, in which the wearied body may 
recover its impaired energies. 

Slumber. 

Slumber is that condition, when the mind is less 
connected than usual by the organs of external sensa- 
tion with surrounding objects, and when volition is 
occupied in producing a more complete separation, by 
withdrawing the attention from external influences. 
When this condition is well marked, the mind is dis- 
tinctly employed in producing a still deeper degree of 
sleep by withdrawing itself from the perception of ex- 



66 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

ternal influences. So long as the external senses con- 
nect the mind, however imperfectly, with external 
objects, this state may be said to exist. The feeling 
of sleepiness may be very considerable, but the mind is 
regulated in its action until some of the channels of 
sensation are closed. When this takes place, it is no 
longer perfectly controlled by the perception of external 
influences, and having lost that bond of union which 
establishes harmony of action, it is left to the uncon- 
strained operations of the imagination. But the senses 
are not all subdued at once, and sight, taste, smell, 
hearing, and touch fail in the order here given. Mor- 
phia taken in small doses will produce slumber, and 
under its influence, the operation of the mind in willing 
the resistance of the senses to their appropriate stimuli 
is readily experienced, but it is continually baffled by 
the irregularity of mental action produced by the drug. 
So long as all the senses convey the impression of their 
stimuli, no matter how feeble, so long will this stage 
continue : but when the eye is involuntarily sealed to 
the impression of light, the mind has lost its hold on 
one point of the circle which bound its action in a per- 
fect course, and here it begins to 

" Weave the stuff that dreams are made of." 

The mind, now liberated, as it were, from the 
shackles of its earthly tenement, opens upon its career 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 67 

of fancy. It annihilates space 'and time. The earth 
is too narrow for its wanderings, and the infinite ex- 
panse is alone capable of furnishing a field for its rapid 
flight. 

" How strange is sleep ! When his dark spell lies 

On the drowsy lids of human eyes, 

The years of a life will float along 

In the compass of a page's song; 

And the mountain's peak and the ocean's dye 

Will scarce give food to his passing eye." 

Dreaming. 

The stage of dreaming is characterized by the per- 
fect closure of one or more of the avenues of special 
sense. When this occurs, the harmony between the 
world and ourselves is broken. The mind is no longer 
controlled by outward influences, but is struggling 
under the combined effects of its own innate powers 
and imperfectly transmitted sensational impressions. 
We have lost the means whereby the perception of an 
impression of one sense can be tested by the co-operat- 
ing scrutiny of another. 

Dr. Abercrombie says, that " in dreams, the impres- 
sions which arise in the mind are believed to have a 
real and present existence ; and this belief is not cor- 
rected, as in the waking state, by comparing the con- 
ception with the things of the external world ; and that 



<38 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

the ideas or images in the mind follow one another, 
according to associations over which we have no con- 
trol ; we cannot, as in the waking state, vary the series, 
or stop it at our will." 

The wonderful clearness, at times, of the mind in 
dreams, must have been observed by all who have 
given attention to this subject. This lucidity is par- 
ticularly observed in imaginary conversation, public 
speaking, and composing, the minutiae of which the 
individual seldom retains on awaking ; but he is asto- 
nished at the recollection of the exuberance of his ideas, 
as well as the ease with which he expressed them. 
This mental clearness depends upon the passive condi- 
tion of the external senses, which modifies the impres- 
sion of external things that would otherwise divert and 
divide the attention. In this stage, volition is ready 
for action, but the mental operations are not sufficiently 
intense to call it into play ; and the mind is not con- 
trolled by the influences of outward circumstances. 

We conceive that every portion of the mental organ 
is at all times in action ; but that the degree differs as 
regards its various parts, and that their activity is 
regulated by existing circumstances. The organs 
which approach the passive state, exert some influence 
in moulding the operations of such as are actively en- 
gaged, so that although the whole are not at any one 
time occupied by a single subject, yet there is no part 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 69 

which does not experience in a degree its peculiar 
mode of activity. 

During sleep, the mental organ presents the same 
phenomena as when awake ; for in dreams certain 
elements only are actively excited — those having refer- 
ence to the subject of the dream ; but the more pas- 
sive organs are ready to change their state, as circum- 
stances may arise to vary the character of the dream. 

On being suddenly aroused, we are generally con- 
scious of having dreamed, with little or no recollection, 
however, of the subject. But when we awake gradu- 
ally — the necessity for longer sleep having ceased — the 
senses recover their functions one after another, until 
all are fully awake. In such case, the dream is most 
perfectly remembered. To this general fact, however, 
there are exceptions, for when suddenly aroused, either 
by intensity of mental excitement, or from external 
causes, we retain vividly the strong impression then 
existing, because the senses of external relation are 
taken by surprise, and even though awakened, the train 
of thought cannot be in all cases so quickly arrested. 
The mind is at all times subject to its proper stimuli ; 
but during sound sleep, that of external relation is cut 
off by the torpor of the special senses, and it is, there- 
fore, less likely to be actively engaged than when all 
its sources of communication are open. 

From this view of sleep, it may be said, we live in a 



*70 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

state of divided consciousness. When the externa. 
senses are in abeyance, our mental existence is clearly 
distinct from that of wakefulness, and vice versti. But 
when the senses are partially impressible, then our 
existence is one of transition. This is the period of 
remembered dreams. 

If it be true, as Combe remarks, that " the senses 
themselves do not form ideas," yet they do inform 
the mind of external relations or circumstances out 
of which ideas are produced. It is not pretended that 
the mind in dreams does not, or cannot recall ideas of 
external qualities of bodies, but the ideas which are 
formed relative to them are the result of internal 
faculties : — and so it is with the perception of an im- 
pression of any one of the senses — in truth, an im- 
pression of one may call up ideas which were originally 
dependent on any one or all combined. 

We do not, neither can we, dream of what we 
possess no knowledge. But memory may, on the im- 
pression of a sense, recall to mind a fact or circum- 
stance, and the imagination may take it up and multi- 
ply it into a thousand forms and invest them with an 
endless variety of fanciful creations : — for 

" Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, 
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain ; 
Awake but one, and lo ! what myriads rise, 
Each stamps his image as the other flies." 



SLEEP. DREAMING. *71 

The sense of hearing, or impressions made upon the 
auditory nerve, are most intimately connected with the 
propensities and sentiments ; and the sense of sight, 
or impressions transmitted by the optic nerve, are more 
nearly allied to the intellectual operations. The men- 
tal operations, during sleep, are longer controlled or 
influenced by hearing than by seeing, and dreams are 
consequently connected more with the animal than 
the intellectual constitution in their fundamental ele- 
ments. 

Indefiniteness — a something wanting — is a general 
quality of mental action in sleep, of which the mind is 
conscious when it attempts to recall a dream. Combe 
says, that " in most individuals, the mind has no power 
of calling up, into fresh existences, the emotions ex- 
perienced by means of the propensities and sentiments, 
by merely willing them to be felt ; and hence we hold 
these faculties not to possess memory. The ideas, 
however, formed by the knowing and reflective facul- 
ties, can be reproduced by an act of recollection, which 
powers are, therefore, said to have memory." This 
view may account for the imperfect remembrance 
we have of some dreams which immediately precede 
' the state of complete wakefulness, when, in fact, sleep 
has been prolonged almost by an effort of the will. 
For if it requires the sense of vision — which is pro- 
bably the first to sleep, and the last to emerge from 



72 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

it — to excite the perceptive and reflective faculties, it 
may solve the problem of imperfect memory of what 
passes in the mind during sleep. Many of the least 
distinct remembrances we have of our dreams, with a 
perfect consciousness, however, of their existence, as 
well as their almost purely intellectual character, are 
those in which the individual was engaged in composi- 
tion or declamation. Another reason for this indis- 
tinctness is, that he may have been vacillating between 
the stages of dreaming and torpor, lying as it were on 
the confines of each, which would produce confusion 
in the memory, — remembering what transpired in the 
one, and forgetting what occurred in the other. 

Dr. Parr says, " In dreams we seem to reason, to 
argue, to compose ; and in all these circumstances 
during sleep, we are highly gratified, and think we 
excel. If, however, we remember our dreams, our 
reasonings we find to be weak, our arguments incon- 
clusive, and our compositions trifling and absurd." 
Now these views are applicable to minds of just the 
capacity for mental energy in the waking state, which 
he has described when they are asleep. The powerful 
intellect will reason just as correctly when asleep, upon 
the premises given, as when awake ; but unfortunate- 
ly, the data are in many instances indistinct and erro- 
neous when the mind is debarred the influence of those 



SLEEP.— DREAMING. *73 

means through which facts are presented, and the 
judgment regulated. 

" For if our conscious waking thoughts 
Weave out so few and worthless ends, 
Much more a tangled woof is wrought 
When dream with dream commingling blends; 
The toilsome scenes of weary days, 
By night lived o'er, at morn we see 
Made monstrous in a thousand ways, 
Like fabled shapes on tapestry." 

But when the premises are properly grasped, we are 
presented with dreams in geometry, poetry, music, and 
in truth with mental subjects as varied as the objects 
of thought, and not inferior to products of the mind in 
wakefulness. The imperfection of memory also, in 
sleep, is a prolific source of error in regard to what 
the actual powers of the mind are in this condition. 

As an example of the intellectual capacity of a mind 
in sleep, endowed by nature and cultivated by study, 
take the poem of " Kubla Khan," which is the rehear- 
sal verbatim of a dream of the poet Coleridge. 

" In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
A stately pleasure-dome decree \ 
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
Through caverns measureless to man, 
Down to a sunless sea." 

4 



74 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED, 

" So twice five miles of fertile ground 
With walls and towers were girdled round : 
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 
Where blossom'd many an incense-hearing tree ; 
And here were forests ancient as the hills, 
Infolding sunny spots of greenery. 
But oh that deep romantic chasm which slanted 
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover 1 
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted 
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 
By woman wailing for her demon-lover ! 
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, 
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, 
A mighty fountain momently was forced : 
Amid whose swift half intermitted bursts 
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, 
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail : 
And 'mid those dancing rocks at once and ever 
It flung up momently the sacred river. 
Five miles, meandering with a mazy motion, 
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 
Then reached the caverns measureless to man, 
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean : 
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 
Ancestral voices prophesying war." 

We have no power to set up a particular train of 
thought, that is to say, volition is either impotent, or 
subserves the bidding of the organs most highly excited. 
But the power of judging is probably as good as when 
awake, for it decides only upon the premises presented 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 15 

in either case, and during sleep and in dreams the pre- 
mises are usually scanty and at fault. When Dr. 
Johnson, in referring to a dream in which he had a 
contest of wit with another individual, said, "Now one 
may mark here the effect of sleep in weakening the 
power of reflection ; for, had not my judgment failed 
me, I should have seen that the wit of this supposed 
antagonist, by whose superiority I felt myself de- 
pressed, was as much furnished by me as that which I 
thought I had been uttering in my own character/' 
We apprehend that the error of judgment and weaken- 
ing of the reflective powers arose from a lack of all the 
circumstances in the case being presented to his mind. 
Certainly he had lost identity, because in his dream he 
furnished argument for another person without com- 
prehending that he was doing so, and therefore, a just 
conclusion could not be arrived at. But the feeling of 
chagrin or mortification which he experienced, was a 
legitimate result of his judgment founded on the pre- 
mises. 

Dr. Binns, to whom we are largely indebted for 
examples, in his chapter on dreams says, " Magnenus 
forgot, or rather did not know, that the same organs 
which are in activity during the day, continue their 
work during the night, while the external senses are 
seeking that repose which the exertions of the morning 
render imperative." The perpetual activity of the 



16 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

mind is here clearly stated, and in our view correctly, 
but that it is confined to the operations of the day pre- 
ceding sleep is by no means the case. But when the 
mind has been intensely excited upon a particular sub- 
ject preceding sleep, it seems as though the same sub- 
ject, modified and oftentimes richly embellished, in 
harmony with the mental constitution of the individual, 
is prolonged during sleep. A beautiful illustration is 
to be found in the recital of the toils and privations in 
the deserts of Africa by Mr. Moffat : " We continued," 
he says, " our slow and silent march. The tongue 
cleaving to the roof of the mouth from thirst, made 
conversation extremely difficult. At last, we reached 
the long wished-for water-fall ; but it was too late to 
ascend the hill. We laid our heads on our saddles. 
The last sound we heard was the distant roar of the 
lion ; but we were too much exhausted to feel anything 
like fear. Sleep came to our relief, and it seemed made 
up of scenes the most lovely. I felt as if engaged in 
roving among ambrosial bowers, hearing sounds of mu- 
sic, as if from angels' harps. I seemed to pass from 
stream to stream, in which I bathed, and slaked my 
thirst at many a crystal fount flowing from mountains 
enriched with living green. These pleasures continued 
till morning, when we awoke speechless with thirst, 
our eyes inflamed, and our whole frames burning like 
a coal." 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 11 

In this case the dream may have depended in part 
upon internal sensations, but the intense excitement 
probably produced phantasms which impressed it so 
vividly upon the memory ; for although he had not yet 
reached the water, his imagination was bathing his 
thirsty soul in " many a crystal fountain." 

" The minds of sleeping persons," the Elder Cyrus 
says, "strongly manifest their divine origin ; for when 
they are free and released from corporeal influences, 
they foresee much that is to be." We would say, that 
freedom from external relation often confers a scope 
of action, ordinarily irregular and indefinite, which sur- 
passes in imagery, variety, rapidity, and comprehension, 
any train of thought the same individual can originate 
in a state of wakefulness. The velocity with which 
the mind traverses space and time is almost incon- 
ceivable — in truth we are unable to grasp the rapidity 
with which it operates ; for when we reflect upon the 
subjects presented in our most vivid dreams, — circum- 
stances essential, collateral, and accidental, are multi- 
plied ad infinitum, until we are lost in the exuberance 
of thought which composed the vision. 

The dreams of De Quincy, the " English Opium 
Eater," show this wonderful power of the mental facul- 
ties when divested of the restraining influence of out- 
ward impressions. Probably every person has at some 
period of his life experienced this expansion of mind 



78 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

which he well remembers ; although he retains only an 
undefined remembrance of the ideas. But when he 
reflects upon the subject, he is astonished with the 
vastness of the thoughts that floated through his mind, 
and he is constrained with the poet to exclaim 

" Yea, in the strangeness of my vision, I 
Seemed to soar on wings." 

The mental faculties may be as severely exercised 
when we are asleep as when awake. The intensity of 
action in either case depends upon the exciting cause. 
If the cause during sleep originate in the brain, or if it 
proceed from external influences, the mental operations 
thence take their course, sometimes consistent, as when 
the senses are partially intact, or inconsistent when 
they are in abeyance. 

Phrenologists say, that the propensities and senti- 
ments are excited by perceptions of the knowing and 
reflective faculties. This has reference to the waking 
state. But in sleep, the order is reversed. The intel- 
lectual powers receive their stimulus principally from 
internal sensations produced in the organs of feeling. 

Dreams may be considered as simple and complex. 
They are simple when the mind only is in action, and 
complex when the physical obeys the dictates of the 
mental being. 

When the first shades of sleep descend upon us in 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 



consonance with our wishes, and the perception of ex- 
ternal circumstances is vague and undefined, the mind 
is free to revel in all the delights of fancied happiness, 
or despond under the weight of imaginary affliction. 
This condition depends measurably upon our reflec- 
tions previous to our falling into sleep ; and although 
the mind takes on a pleasurable or painful train of 
thought in the commencement, it is not even probable 
that it will continue in it for any length of time, be- 
cause one idea will lead to another, from some cause 
associated with circumstances which may be of an en- 
tirely different character from the one by which it was 
induced, and which, as the controlling influences of 
perfect sensational impressions are obstructed, will lead 
from pleasure to pain — from a sentiment of love to a 
feeling of revenge. In this way, the mind may be car- 
ried through all the various combinations of its ulti- 
mate elements. This mental process constitutes sim- 
ple dreaming. 

To illustrate the associate action of the mind in 
sleep, we will transcribe the dream of Professor Maas, 
of Halle, and his analysis of its phenomena. The pro- 
fessor says that " I dreamed once that the Pope visited 
me. He commanded me to open my desk, and care- 
fully examined all the papers it contained. While he 
was thus employed, a very sparkling diamond fell out 
of his triple crown into my desk, of which, however, 



80 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

neither of us took any notice. As soon as the Pope 
had withdrawn, I retired to bed ; but was soon obliged 
to rise, on account of a thick smoke, the cause of 
which I had yet to learn. Upon examination I dis- 
covered that the diamond had set fire to the papers in 
my desk, and burned them to ashes." 

Jn explanation he observes, that "On the preceding 
evening I was visited by a friend, with whom I had a 
lively conversation upon Joseph the Second's suppres- 
sions of monasteries and convents. With this idea, 
though I did not become conscious of it in the dream, 
was associated the visit which the Pope publicly paid 
to the Emperor Joseph, at Vienna, in consequence of 
the measure taken against the clergy ; and with this 
again was combined, however faintly, the representa- 
tion of the visit which had been paid me by my friend. 
These two events were, by the sub-reasoning faculty., 
compounded into one, according to the established rule, 
that things which agree in their parts also correspond 
as to the whole : hence the Pope's visit was changed 
into a visit made to me. The sub-reasoning faculty 
then, in order to account for this extraordinary visit, 
fixed upon that which was the most important object 
in my room, namely, the desk, or rather the papers it 
contained. That a diamond fell out of the triple crown 
was a collateral association, which was owing merely 
to the representation of the desk. Some days before, 



SLEEP.— DREAMING. 81 

when opening the desk, I had broken the glass of my 
watch, which I held in my hand, and the fragments fell 
among the papers : hence no further attention was paid 
to the diamond, being a representation of a collateral 
series of things. But afterwards, the representation of 
the sparkling stone was again excited, and became the 
prevailing idea ; hence it determined the succeeding 
association. On account of its similarity, it excited 
the representation of fire, with which it was confound- 
ed ; hence arose fire and smoke. But, in the event, the 
writings only were burned, not the desk itself; to which, 
being of comparatively less value, the attention was not 
at all directed." 

In treating the subject of dreams, one class of philo- 
sophers believe the mind to be under the influence of 
good and evil spirits, and that as one or the other of 
these invisible attendants gains ascendency, the 
person will experience happy or distressing dreams. 
Gall, in his reduction of the mind to its ultimate 
elements, has shown that these spirits are to be found 
in the animal econom}^, and are the activity of the 
organs of the mind itself. "Almost all physiologists," 
he says, " agree, that, in dreaming, animal life is par- 
tially active. They are right, and yet they deny the 
plurality of organs ! But dreams cannot be conceived 
without the hypothesis of this plurality. 

" When in sleep particular organs of .animal life be- 

4* 



82 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

come active, the sentiments and ideas which depend 
upon them must necessarily be awakened ; but, in this 
case, the activity is independent of the will. 

" When one organ only is active, the dream is sim- 
ple : the object of our love is embraced, harmonious 
music is heard, we fight our enemies, accordingly as 
one organ or another is performing its functions." 

The action of the organs of veneration and benevo- 
lence, combativeness and destructiveness, in combina- 
tion with other fundamental elements of the mind, will 
account for many of the singular associations during 
sleep; and in the language of the fair Poetess will 
show, that 

" It is Thought at work amidst buried hours, 
It is Love keeping vigil o'er perished flowers, 
Oh ! we bear within us mysterious things, 
Of Memory and Anguish unfathomed springs, 
And Passion, those gulfs of the heart to fill, 
With bitter waves which it ne'er may still." 

When the mental action is sufficiently intense in the 
dream, the faculty of speech is brought into play, and 
by an increased intensity, locomotion is added. This 
constitutes complex dreaming. Volition, the result of 
the activity of the intellectual organs, obeys those 
powers of the mind in operation, and therefore, when 
dialogue is the character of the dream, if the intellec- 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 



tuai excitement is sufficiently intense, vocal action 
follows ; and in like manner, when change of place is 
desired, volition plays the same part with the organs 
of locomotion — -causing somnambulism. 

Sleep-talking and sleep-walking occur in the stages 
of dreaming and torpor. When they occur in the 
former stage, the person retains the circumstances on 
awaking ; but when in the latter, there is no remem- 
brance of them. Volition is developed in proportion, 
and acts in obedience to the mental organs in action ; 
and memory is unfolded in a like ratio to the impressi- 
bility of the sensational apparatus. 

An instance combining these phenomena was fami- 
liar to the author. The subject, a merchant's clerk, 
was of a sanguineo-nervous temperament — irritable and 
timid. It was a favorite amusement with his fellow- 
clerks, to commence a conversation with him (as soon 
as he was sufficiently asleep not to be easily aroused), 
relative to robbers breaking into the store- house. From 
his timorous disposition, this subject was undoubtedly 
on his mind when he retired to rest, and therefore 
could, by skilful management, readily be made the 
theme of his thoughts in sleep. By this management, 
he could be induced to converse, leave his bed, dress, 
go into the street and combat any person who should 
oppose him in the feigned character of a robber. On 
awaking he could relate nearly the whole transaction. 



84 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

In this case the mental action was intense, and voli- 
tion was perfect in a corresponding ratio. The audi- 
tory organs, which were the principal avenues to the 
mind, were but little impaired, and as he could be 
readily aroused by concussion, the sense of touch was 
also in a tolerable state of integrity. In most instances 
of this character, the senses are apparently obliterated ; 
the individual is not easily aroused, and memory seldom 
retains any of the circumstances. 

Not long since, a person in the stage of torpor leaped 
from the second story window of a hotel in this city ; 
alighting on the stone pavement, he considerably 
sprained his ankle. After running about twenty rods 
he came in contact with a lamp-post to which he 
clung, and from which he was taken in a state of 
sound sleep, being unconscious of his situation. On 
awaking he had no remembrance of what had oc- 
curred. The injury, had it been transmitted to the 
brain, was sufficient to change the character of his 
thoughts, and to arouse him from sleep. This, how- 
ever, did not occur till some time afterwards. Volition 
was as perfect in this case as in the former, but 
memory was not, volition depending upon the intensity 
of mental action, memory upon the' integrity o£ the 
special senses. 

Sensational hallucinations and waking dreams do 
not properly belong to the subject of sleep ; they are 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 85 

a species of monomania, and probably arise from 
organic derangement. When the mind is so riveted 
upon one subject as to exclude all others from its 
notice, it has escaped from the control of the judg- 
ment, and is in a state of at least partial insanity. 
Revery is of this character, but of short duration. It 
is a species of madness. These conditions occur in a 
state of insomnolence, and have little in common with 
the phenomena presented in sleep. 

The occasional premonitions communicated in 
dreams — " in visions of the night when deep sleep 
falleth upon man" — is a mystery, which as yet has 
not, and never may be unravelled. 

Lord Stanhope relates the following singular instance 
of this description. — " A Lord of the Admiralty, who 
was on a visit to Mount Edgecombe, and who was 
much distressed by dreaming, dreamed that, walking 
on the sea-shore, he picked up a book, which appeared 
to be the log-book of a ship of war, of which his brother 
was the captain. He opened it, and read an entry of 
the latitude, longitude, as ' well as of the day and 
hour, to which was added, 'our captain died.' The 
company endeavored to comfort him, by laying a 
wager that the dream would be falsified by the event ; 
and a memorandum was made in writing of what he 
had stated, which was afterwards confirmed in every 
particular." 



86 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

We also introduce the following letter of the Hon. 
Mr. Talbot to the same effect. " In the year 1768, 
my father, Matthew Talbot, of Castle Talbot, county 
Wexford, was much surprised at the recurrence of a 
dream three several times during the same night, which 
caused him to repeat the whole circumstance to his 
lady, the following morning. He dreamed that he 
had arisen as usual, and descended to his library, the 
morning being hazy. He then seated himself at his 
secretoire to write, when, happening to look up a long 
avenue of trees opposite the window, he perceived a 
man in a blue jacket, mounted on a white horse, 
coming towards the house. My father arose, and 
opened the window : the man advancing, presented 
him with a roll of papers, and told him they were 
invoices of a vessel which had been wrecked, and had 
drifted in during the night on his son-in-law's, Lord 
Mount Morris's, estate close by, and signed ' Bell & 
Stephenson.' My father's attention was only called 
to the dream from its frequent recurrence ; but when 
he found himself seated at his desk on the misty morn- 
ing, and beheld the identical person whom he had seen 
in his dream, in the blue coat, riding on a grey horse, 
he felt surprised, and opening the window, waited the 
man's approach. He immediately rode up, and draw- 
ing from his pocket a packet of papers, gave them to 
my father, stating they were invoices belonging to an 



SLEEP.— DREAMING. 87 

American vessel which had been wrecked, and drifted 
in upon his lordship's estate ; that there was no person 
on board to lay claim to the wreck, but that the invoices 
were signed ' Stephenson and Bell.' I assure you, my 
dear sir, that the above is most faithfully given, and 
actually occurred ; but it is not more extraordinary 
than other examples of the prophetic powers of the 
mind or soul in sleep, which I have frequently heard 
related. — Yours most faithfully, 

" William Talbot. 
"Alton Towers, Oct. 23, 1842." 

There are many dreams recorded and remembered 
with dread as having been supernatural visitations, 
foreboding evil, and which should have been regarded 
with more seriousness, and attended to with greater 
vigilance. 

Lord Jocelyn gives in his " Six Months with the 
Chinese Expedition," the following dream of Captain 
Anstruther. " This officer was a particular favorite 
with the whole force, and in his frequent walks into 
the country around Tinghae, when performing his 
military duties, had apparently made himself a great 
friend with the country people, for whose amusement 
he used to sketch likenesses, much to their astonish- 
ment. The night but one previous to his capture, the 
artillery camp was aroused by screams proceeding 
from his. tent, and when some of his brother officers 



88 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

traced the sounds to his quarters, he was found asleep, 
but upon being awaked, said, that he had been dream- 
ing that the Chinese were carrying him off, tied arms 
and legs to a pole, and gagged, within sight of the 
camp. This is curious, as from what we were able 
afterwards to discover, through the means of a paid 
agent, it was nearly the case, and he was borne within 
half a mile of the very tents." 

The circumstances connected with this dream divest 
it in a great measure of its supernatural character. 
The subject of it was an officer of the British army, 
and regarded as a deadly enemy of the people with 
whom he held intercourse. The dream related to 
himself especially, and being perfectly conversant with 
their character for stratagem and treachery, he stood 
in constant fear of them. He also knew the manner 
of securing their victims was precisely what occurred 
in his dream, and his mind in sleep was aroused to a 
contemplation of the subject in its worst aspect. The 
dream could hardly have been other than it was ; but 
the horrors of the imaginary scene should have led him 
to take precautions against its realization. 

We extract from Dr. Binns's " Anatomy of Sleep," 
which the curious in such matters will find rich in 
material upon these subjects, this case : — A young 
man named John Gray, residing at Cinderford, who told 
his mother, before he went to the Crump Meadow coal- 



SLEEP. DREAMING. 89 

pits, at which he worked, that he dreamed the preced- 
ing night (Sunday, January 14th, 1844), that, while at 
work, a large stone fell upon and killed him. The 
mother made light of the dream. Not so the dreamer, 
who went reluctantly to work, and not until he had 
returned twice to wish her good-bye. The dream was 
fulfilled. An immense block of stone fell upon, and 
crushed him to death." 

Many years ago, when our family resided on the 
banks of the Mohawk, long before the thunder of the 
steam water-paddle echoed along the shores of the 
Hudson, or the shrill whistle of the locomotive startled 
the silence of glen and mountain ; when the river in 
the summer was crossed by ford or ferry, and in 
winter upon the often treacherous ice ; early in the 
spring, before the river had broken up, my father, on 
the eve of departure for New York, dreamed that he 
was in an ice-house, striving to get out by climbing 
up its slippery contents. The dream was barely 
related, and then forgotten. The succeeding day, on 
horseback, he commenced his journey, and was obliged 
to cross the river. The ice by evaporation having 
lost much of its strength, he was precipitated into the 
stream below. Timely assistance, however, rescued 
him from the impending danger, but the accident and 
the dream were ever after coupled in his memory. 

This dream was the result of mental association 



90 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

during sleep, and was perfectly natural under the 
circumstances, but none the less a premonition of 
danger. Had it aroused the reflective powers when 
awake as strongly as it did during sleep, the accident 
would probably have been avoided. 

It is curious to observe how thoughts of the waking 
hours may be prolonged and modified in sleep. As an 
instance we will relate what occurred in our own case, 
on the night succeeding our writing the remarks on 
mysterious and prophetic dreams. 

Not long since, I was examining the Croton water- 
works in New York city, including some pits which 
were open in the streets where the great iron trunks 
were exposed ; and on the occasion just alluded to, my 
mind was in part occupied with this subject. On fall- 
ing asleep, I dreamed that in passing one of the pits, 
I jumped down upon a tube about three inches in 
diameter, for the purpose of inspecting the work more 
minutely ; but when in this position, on casting my 
eyes below, an awful chasm presented itself, crossed 
in various directions by huge iron water tubes, but the 
bottom was invisible. However, the depth was ninety 
feet. In what way this information was imparted is 
indistinct, but such appeared the awful depth under 
my slippery footing. I could just fairly reach the 
surface above, but could lay hold of nothing, and there- 
fore attempted to leap to the top. I failed, and in fall- 



SLEEP.— TORPOK. 91 

ing lodged upon the place just left. This fall will 
never be forgotten, so long as excessive fright com- 
mingled with horror can leave an impression on my 
mind. I then thought to cry for help, but dared not, 
lest my feet should slip and precipitate me down the 
dark chasm beneath. After reflecting long upon my 
perilous situation, I commenced feeling around the 
platform surrounding the top, and finally succeeded in 
fastening my fingers in a crevice between the planks, 
by which means I drew myself up. The dream ordi- 
narily would have ended here, but my mind now 
turned upon the subject which had occupied my atten- 
tion the preceding evening until a late hour. I thought 
in my dream that what had just transpired was a pro- 
phetic dream, and to what it might point my reflec- 
tions were directed, as well as to what would be the 
best course to elude the impending danger. During 
these reflections I awoke excessively exhausted. In 
this instance, in a dream I dreamed that I was dream- 
ing. It was a singular mental phenomenon, and of 
rare occurrence, but not alone on record. 



Torpor. 

The stage of torpor begins when the external senses 
are in abeyance. It has been supposed by many psy- 
chologists, that during sound sleep the mind is dormant. 



92 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

This view is based upon the fact, that as there is no 
memory of thought during this period, it must of 
consequence be in a state of quiescence. 

Torpor, or sound sleep, is that condition of the 
system which most strongly resists the return of the 
senses to their normal functions on the application of 
external stimuli ; and when aroused, the memory retain- 
ing no knowledge of the interval elapsed — regarding 
it as a blank in our conscious existence. It is imma- 
terial by what means this condition is induced ; 
whether it be a normal sequence of our constitution, 
the administration of narcotics, or by influences of the 
character of which we are ignorant. It exhibits only 
the phenomena of organic life ; all consciousness 
regarding the ordinary influences of external objects 
is lost, and all memory of having existed during its 
continuance obliterated. 

From the recorded cases of protracted sleep, let us 
extract one from Macnish, illustrating the peculiar 
characteristics of this stage. 

" The case of Mary Lyall, related in the 8th volume 
of the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh,' is one of the most remarkable instances of ex- 
cessive somnolency on record. This woman fell asleep 
on the morning of the 27th of June, and continued in 
that state till the evening of the 30th of the same 
month, when she awoke, and remained in her usual 



SLEEP. TORPOR. 93 

way till the 1st of July, when she again fell asleep, and 
continued so till the 8th of August. She was bled, 
blistered, immersed in the hot and cold bath, and 
stimulated in almost every possible way, without 
having any consciousness of what was going on. For 
the first seven days she continued motionless, and 
exhibited no inclination to eat. At the end of this 
time she began to move her left hand ; and, by point- 
ing to her mouth, signified a wish for food. She took 
readily what was given her ; still she discovered no 
symptoms of hearing, and made no other kind of bodily 
movement than of her left hand. Her right hand and 
arm, particularly, appeared completely dead, and bereft 
of feeling ; and even when pricked with a pin, so as to 
draw blood, never shrank in the least degree. At the 
same time she instantly drew back her left arm when- 
ever it was touched by the point of a pin. She con- 
tinued to take food whenever it was offered to her. 
For the first two weeks, her pulse generally stood at 
50, during the third and fourth week, about 60, and on 
the day before her recovery, at 70 or 72. Her breath- 
ing was soft and almost imperceptible, but during the 
night-time she occasionally drew it more strongly, like 
a person who has first fallen asleep. She evinced no 
symptoms of hearing, till about four days before her 
recovery. On being interrogated, after this event, 
upon her extraordinary state, she mentioned that she 



94 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

had no knowledge of anything that had happened ; 
that she had never been conscious of either having 
needed or received food, or of having been blistered ; 
and expressed much surprise on finding her head 
shaved. She had merely the idea of having passed 
a long night in sleep." 

Whether we are to regard the retraction of the 
arm when pricked as the result of volition, or whether 
the prick merely excited a reflex action, may be ques- 
tionable. She certainly exhibited sensation, but with- 
out perception there could be no volition. Food, when 
put into her mouth, was swallowed readily ; but she 
could not recollect it. Deglutition may be accom- 
plished independently of the will, owing to reflex 
action, as was shown in the experiments of Hertwig 
and Florens, who found that animals would swallow 
substances placed upon the tongue, after the superior 
portion of the brain had been removed. All the 
sensibility she evinced, until about the fourth day 
before her recovery, was probably of this character. 
At this period she had perception through the auditory 
apparatus, and consequently, when she awoke, " she 
had merely the idea of having passed a long night in 
sleep ;" she had an indistinct recollection of having 
existed for that period. 

There are many extraordinary instances of pro- 
tracted sleep recorded, but they all present the peculiar 



SLEEP. TORPOR. 95 

characteristics of the stage of torpor, and give addi- 
tional evidence of the views here set forth. 

Another singular state of existence, which still 
further illustrates the mental as well as physical con- 
dition during sound sleep, may be observed in the 
artificial induction of torpor through the influence of 
animal magnetism, which we shall consider in the 
next chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 



MESMERISM. 



Animal Magnetism, as connected with the phenome- 
na of sleep, is not only interesting as a matter of 
metaphysical speculation, but of great importance in 
the illustration of our subject. In truth, sleep is 
always the same in principle, though differing in de- 
gree, let the inducing cause be what it may ; and that 
condition which the disciples of Mesmer term Mag- 
netic sleep, is but its most profound state, or the stage 
of torpor. 

The phenomena presented by the power of the 
mesmerizer in opening a passage to the mind in this 
isolated condition, displaying its integrity in a light 
so clear that we perceive its condition and power of 
action to be as perfect during sleep, while the external 
senses are sealed to their natural stimuli, as when it 
receives its impressions through their media, — are truly 
wonderful. It acknowledges an unusual channel of 
communication when its ordinary ones are closed, and 
as the sequel will show, is ever perfect, and ready to 
reply to impressions when correctly made. 



MESMERISM. 9T 

The manipulations of the mesmerizer conduct the 
mind and body through all the stages of sleep — from 
lassitude to slumber, and from slumber to a death-like 
trance, when, answering to no ordinary stimuli, the 
senses are apparently obliterated, the functions of 
intellectual existence sealed up, while only those of 
organic life remain, and the subject to all appearance 
but one remove from death itself. This is emphatical- 
ly a state of sound sleep. Are the mental faculties 
during this inexplicable condition dormant ? Speak 
to the subject, no reply is elicited: apply the knife to 
the dermoid texture, no sensation is acknowledged : 
present to the eye an illuminated body, no influence 
is excited. The natural avenues to the mind are closed, 
and it is unapproachable through ordinary means. 

The power to set aside this mysterious condition 
lies with the agency that produced it, and through its 
influence, to reveal a mental state during sleep, which, 
without its assistance, must have remained among the 
things unknown. 

The magnetizer, in operating upon the mental state 
of his subject, fixes his own mind intensely on some 
object with which the magnetized is unacquainted, 
and makes inquiries relative to it. He receives for 
answer a true description. This is probably a re- 
flection of his own mind. But he does not always 
receive a correct reply. This may be owing to an 



98 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

imperfection in the mind of the magnetized, who may 
not be able to comprehend the subject ; and because 
there is probably no power of creation, but only of 
eliciting what already exists. The questions are not 
invariably replied to, and reasons are sometimes as- 
signed for withholding replies. This is not a reflec- 
tion of the mind of the manipulist, but a distinct act 
of volition, involving the reflective faculties." It is 
antagonistic to, and not in harmony with the will of 
the mesmerizer. The manipulist possesses the power 
of directing the mind of the magnetized to a particu- 
lar subject, but without the power of controlling its 
operations. It is apparently dependent as to the selec- 
tion of a subject for consideration ; but afterwards 
acts upon it independently. In such case the indi- 
vidual presents his own mental characteristics. Should 
discretion be the prominent feature of his mind, his 
answers will be in harmony with sound sense ; but if 
he is gifted with strong powers of imagination, his 
replies will partake largely of his own fanciful crea- 
tions. The magnetizer appears to hold the same con- 
trolling influences through his mysterious communica- 
tions, that surrounding objects do through the special 
senses, — the regulating power of the mind ; but the 
result of the mental operations as manifested through 
the will is independent. 

One of Dr. Elliotson's cases illustrates this mental 



MESMERISM. 99 

independence of the magnetic state very explicitly. 
In the Doctor's solicitations for a song, his subject 
exhibited great impatience at his importunity, but upon 
his earnest request "she at length complied, and sang 
a ballad in a rather sweet voice, breaking off, however, 
in the middle with an impatient expression, " How 
tiresome you are ! There, I forget it." "After some 
minutes, she resumed, and finished the song." 

Dr. George Moore, in his " Body and Mind," relates 
the case of a boy with a headless supplemental trunk 
growing from the abdomen, which on being touched, 
the sensation was acknowledged by, or in other words, 
referred to the corresponding part of the perfect body. 
In this case it appears that the percipient principle of 
one mind acted for the sensations of another body. 
There are numerous cases of mesmeric record, where 
a like mental phenomenon is exemplified in separate 
bodies. For instance, when the sense of taste is in- 
tensely excited by highly flavored substances placed 
on the tongue of the mesmerizer, the same impression 
is perceived by the mesmerized, and so of the impres- 
sions of all the other senses. The books on mesmer- 
ism abound in examples of this kind. 

Not long since we attended an exhibition of animal 
magnetism, and were appointed one of a committee to 
prevent or discover collusion between the parties, and 
we must frankly acknowledge that nothing of the kind 



100 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

could be detected ; in fact, we were perfectly convinced 
that there was no attempt made at deception. At this 
exhibition there were two subjects— a young man 
about eighteen, and a young woman about twenty 
years of age. These subjects were thrown into the 
mesmeric sleep at the same time, and retained under 
its influence for about three hours. In these cases, 
the mental faculties, so far as the subject of thought 
was concerned, were under the control of the mes- 
merizer, but the precise mode of mental manifestation 
was independent of him. In their answers to interro- 
gatories, either written or verbal, they both replied at 
the same time in phraseology differing entirely, but 
expressing the same ideas. The locomotive power of 
one was subject to his will ; and in her case, the volun- 
tary muscular organs could be relieved of their rigidity 
by degrees. The arms would be perfect!)' - rigid after 
the mind was restored to external relation, and the 
hands would remain clenched while the flexor muscles 
of the arm and fore-arm were perfectly relaxed ; a 
condition which our present knowledge of physiology 
does not account for, but which could be tested by the 
senses of touch and sight, beyond the possibility of 
deception. Was there not a faculty here developed, 
resembling that located in the claws of birds which 
sleep roosting, and which some suppose to be inde- 
pendent of the will, when the animal has taken its pos i- 



MESMERISM. 101 

tion for the night? These cases also exhibited the 
phreno-magnetic phenomena in an extraordinary de- 
gree. The application of the finger to an organ of 1 
one subject would instantly be manifested by the acts- 
of the other, sometimes in vocal expressions, and at 
other times in change of posture, understood as the 
phrenological language of attitude. 

Since witnessing this exhibition, we have attended 
many others of pretty much the same character. We 
have more lately examined a clairvoyant case. The 
subject was a young man about twenty-five years old, 
of a retiring disposition, unassuming manners, and a 
temperament bordering on the phlegmatic. He was 
said by the mesmerizer to be a good example of the 
clairvoyant faculty. He was easily brought under the 
magnetic influence, and entered readily into conversa- 
tion with the mesmerizer, who requested him to go to 
California and describe what he could there see. His 
descriptions of the country, climate, and mineral trea- 
sures, were merely a rehearsal of the current news- 
paper articles of the day touching this all-absorbing 
subject. As these precious scenes were passing before 
his mind, his imagination began to give color and 
extension to his ideas, and the golden regions were 
rapidly stretched along the Rocky mountains, reach- 
ing far up the Oregon. Mountains glittering with 
gold, and valleys to their river bottoms, were shining 



102 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

with their precious stores. From this extensive field 
of observation, he was brought back by his mesmerizer 
to the contemplation of objects immediately before 
him, with the request to describe what he then saw. 
The scene had evidently changed. From barely 
rehearsing, in part, his own golden visions, probably 
the great sum of his daily thoughts, he was constrained 
to deal with things within the compass of his own 
observation, and it cost great effort to convince the 
audience that he possessed, without the use of ordinary 
sense, a tolerable knowledge of surrounding objects. 
But to give perfect satisfaction that he was in a com- 
pletely abnormal state, a dentist extracted a large 
molar tooth without disturbing in the least the calm- 
ness of the patient. On awaking, he remembered 
nothing of these circumstances. 

The question now arises, did the subject see when 
he described surrounding objects, or was it a reflection 
of the mind of the mesmeriser? See, he certainly 
could not, because his eyes were closed, and the pupils 
were permanently dilated ; but he assuredly did by 
some means perceive the objects, otherwise he could 
not have described them. Whether in this particular 
it was a reflection of the mind of the mesmerizer, or 
whether it was identical with an ordinary occurrence 
of somnambulic sleep, is difficult to determine. His 



MESMERISM. 103 

descriptions of California were undoubtedly drawn 
from his own mind. 

During this exhibition, his conductor again required 
him to change the scene of his observations, and it was 
thence transferred to the spirit land. The first object 
he there saw, was a near relative of the magnetizer 
who had been dead some years, but whose memory, 
from peculiar circumstances, was strongly impressed 
upon his mind. Of this person he gave an apt descrip- 
tion. He also saw his own mother, on having his 
attention so directed, who also had been dead a long 
time ; of her too he gave a good description. In the 
former instance, he presented a counterpart of the 
mind of the manipulist, but in the latter he must have 
drawn upon his own memory, because his mother was 
unknown to the lecturer. The description of the 
deceased relative of the mesmerizer in the one case, 
most fully confirms the opinion that he simply reflected 
the mental operations of the mesmerizer ; and the 
description of his own mother, an entire stranger to 
the lecturer, proves that he drew upon his own memory 
alone ; while his imagination arranged the whole so as 
to appear a present reality. Throughout the exhibition, 
the power of the mesmerizer in directing the attention 
of this patient to particular subjects, but without the 
power of controlling him relative to them, was entirely 
conclusive. 



104 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

Now to say, that, because the statements of the 
clairvoyant are correct in regard to circumstances 
with which we are acquainted, we are bound to be- 
lieve them equally so in regard to such as are beyond 
the reach of human knowledge, is unphilosophical ; 
because we should attempt to apply analogical reasoning 
to that branch of philosophy which is itself the source 
of all reason. Analogy is merely the means whereby 
the reason assists itself in determining properties sub- 
ordinate to its own powers. 

From among the many experiments showing the 
influence of animal magnetism on the sensitive appara- 
tus, we will copy a surgical case which occurred in 
hospital practice. " James Wombell, 42, a laboring 
man, had suffered for a period of about five years with 
a painful affection of the left knee joint. He was ad- 
mitted into the hospital at Wellow, in Nottinghamshire, 
and it was decided that amputation should take place 
above the knee joint, and it was accordingly done 
while the patient was under the influence of mesmeric 
sleep ! On the 1st of October this wonderful operation 
was thus performed, as given in the words of the mes- 
merizer, one Mr. W. Topham, a lawyer of the Middle 
Temple, London : I again mesmerized him in four 
minutes. In a quarter of an hour I told Mr. W. 
Squire Wood (the operator), that he might commence. 
I then brought two fingers of each hand gently in con- 



MESMERISM. 105 

tact with Wombell's closed eyelids, and there kept 
them still further to deepen the sleep. Mr. Wood, 
after one earnest look at the man, slowly plunged his 
knife into the centre of the outer side of the thigh, 
directly to the bone ; then made a clear incision round 
the bone to the opposite point, on the outer side of 
the thigh. The stillness at this moment was some- 
thing awful. The calm respiration of the sleeping 
man alone was heard, for all others seemed suspended. 
In making the second incision the position of the leg 
was found to be more inconvenient than it had appeared, 
and the operator could not proceed with his former 
facility. 

" Soon after the second incision, a moaning was 
heard from the patient, which continued at intervals 
until the conclusion. It gave me the idea of a troubled 
dream, for his sleep continued as sound as ever. The 
placid look of his countenance was never changed for 
an instant : his whole frame rested, uncontrolled, in 
perfect stillness and repose : not a muscle or nerve 
was seen to twitch. To the end of the operation, 
including the sawing of the bone, securing the arteries, 
and applying the bandages — occupying a period of 
more than twenty minutes — he lay like a statue. 
With strong sal volatile and water, he gradually and 
calmly awoke, and when asked to describe what he had 
felt, thus replied : ' I never knew anything more 



106 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

(after his' being mesmerized) and never felt any pain at 
all ; I once felt as if / heard a kind of crounching.' 
He was asked if that was painful ; he replied ; ' No 
pain at all. I never had any ; and knew nothing, till I 
was awakened by that strong stuff.' The ' crounching' 
was the sawing of his own thigh bone. The first 
dressing was performed in mesmeric sleep, with similar 
success, and absence of all pain." 

In the London Penny Cyclopaedia we find the 
following case — Vide article Somnambulism. 

" Madame Plantin, aged 64, living at No. 151 Rue 
Saint Dennis, consulted M. Cloquet, April 8th, 1829, 
respecting an open cancer which had existed for several 
years in her breast, and which was complicated with a 
considerable enlargement of the right axillary ganglions. 
M. Chapelain, her physician, who had mesmerized her 
for some months, with the view of dissipating the 
disease, could effect only a profound sleep, in which 
sensation appeared suspended, but intellect remained 
perfect. He suggested to M. Cloquet to operate upon 
her in the mesmeric sleep- waking. M. Cloquet, having 
judged the operation indispensable, consented, and it 
was fixed for the following Sunday, April 1st. The 
two previous days, she was mesmerized several times by 
Dr. Chapelain, who prevailed on her, when in the state 
of sleep-waking, to bear the operation without fear, and 
brought her even to converse about it calmly ; although, 



MESMERISM. 107 

when she was awake, she could not listen to the pro- 
posal for horror. 

" On the day fixed, M. Cloquet arrived at half-past 
ten in the morning, and found the lady dressed, in an 
arm-chair, in the attitude of a person calmly asleep. 
She had returned about an hour from mass, which she 
had habitually attended at that time of the day. Dr. 
Chapelain had thrown her into the mesmeric sleep on 
her return. She spoke with perfect calmness of the 
operation which she was about to undergo. All being 
ready she undressed herself, and sat upon a common 
chair. 

"Dr. Chapelain supported her right arm. The left 
was allowed to hang at her side. M. Pailloux, internal 
student of the Hopital Saint Louis, had the charge of 
presenting the instruments and applying the ligatures. 
The first incision was begun at the arm-pit, and carried 
above the breast as far as the inner side of the nipple. 
The second was begun at the same point, and carried 
under the breast till it met the first. M. Cloquet 
dissected out the enlarged ganglions with care, on 
account of their proximity to the axillary arteries, 
and removed the breast. The operation lasted ten or 
twelve minutes. 

" During all this time, the patient conversed calmly 
with the operator, and gave not the least sign of sensi- 
bility ; no movement occurred in the limbs or features ; 



108 BLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

no change in the respiration or voice, no emotion even 
in the pulse was discernible ; this patient remained 
uninterrupted in the same state of automatic indiffer- 
ence and passiveness (etat d'abandon et d'impassi- 
bilite automiques), in which she was some minutes 
before the operation. There was no necessity to re- 
strain her, we had only to support her. A ligature was 
applied to the lateral thoracic artery, which was opened 
in removing the ganglions. The wound was closed 
with sticking-plaster and dressed, and the patient was 
put to bed, still in the same state of sleep-waking ; and 
was left in this state for eight and forty hours. An 
hour after the operation a slight haemorrhage occurred, 
which proved of no importance. 

" The first dressing was removed on Tuesday the 
14th ; the wound was washed and dressed afresh ; the 
patient showed no sign of pain ; the pulse was undis- 
turbed. After this dressing, Dr. Chapelain awoke 
the patient, whose sleep-waking had lasted from one 
hour before the operation, i. e. two days. The lady 
seemed to have no idea, no conception of what had 
passed ; but on learning that she had been operated 
upon, and seeing her children around her, she expe- 
rienced a very strong emotion, to which the mes- 
merizer put an end by immediately sending her to 
sleep again." 

Double consciousness — another completely abnormal 



MESMEKISM. 109 

state, to which in the course of our concluding remarks 
we shall again recur, — is often induced by animal 
magnetism ; and when so induced, is called independent 
clairvoyance. The individual, in this condition, is as 
perfectly conscious, has as clear an understanding of 
surrounding objects, and is as self-possessed as under 
ordinary circumstances ; but on coming out of it, he 
retains no remembrance of what has taken place. 
When the same state of mind is again induced, what 
had transpired in a former state of the same kind, is 
again present to him. 

A little girl about twelve years old, when in this 
state, in her lively intercourse with her relatives and 
companions, on attempting to run quickly across the 
room, hit her head against a stove pipe, which gave her 
some pain. On being restored she could recollect 
nothing about it ; but on a future occasion, being in 
the same state, she was requested to see how fast she 
could run, to which she replied that she had tried that 
once, had hit her head against the stove pipe, and 
should not do it again. 

The phenomena of double consciousness can be 
maintained for an indefinite period. We find in 
Prof. W. H. Rogger's " Facts in Mesmerism," an 
instance extended to three weeks, and in other books 
on Animal Magnetism, cases of a much longer period 
are recorded. 



110 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

In many instances, the individuals, on being restored 
to the natural state from any of the conditions induced 
by mesmerism, have an indistinct remembrance of 
what has transpired. Upon close investigation of all 
the phenomena, it appears that memory depended upon 
an imperfect state of sleep at the time, the influence 
having in part subsided. In other cases, the magnet- 
izer, by so willing, fastens the transactions upon their 
memory. Here also we apprehend that his influence 
induced at the time a more perfect state of sensation, 
and by this means a remembrance of occurrences is 
retained. 

Great diversity of mental character is exhibited by 
the influence of animal magnetism. In one subject it 
exalts the natural quality of mind almost beyond the 
power of conception ; in another, it so perfectly be- 
calms the thoughts, that the individual borders on 
fatuity ; while in others, the ordinary temperament is 
quite unaffected ; and in some, the thoughts and feel- 
ings of the mesmerizer are reflected as in a mirror — 
the mesmerized having apparently lost his own identity. 

Physically considered, in some constitutions it 
produces merely a state of sound sleep ; while in others 
it superadds convulsions. In some cases it is the 
exciting cause of catalepsy ; and in every instance its 
influence is exerted on some portion of the nervous 
system. We have witnessed in one case, catalepsy of 



MESMERISM. Ill 

muscle ; in several, paralysis of muscle ; and in very 
many instances, muscular rigidity , but in no case did 
the same individual ever exhibit more than one of 
these conditions. This variety of symptom is probably 
the result of constitutional idiosyncrasy. 

Let the essential principle be what it may, animal 
magnetism holds a controlling power over both mind 
and body. The few examples of its influence we have 
cited in this chapter, are given — not to decipher what 
this mysterious agent is — but to show how intimately 
memory and sensation are associated ; and how abso- 
lutely dependent the memorial faculty is upon the 
integrity of the organs of special sense for its deve- 
lopment. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SOMNAMBULISM. 



Somnambulic sleep is one of the most extraordinary 
and unaccountable anomalies of our nature. The 
almost endless variety of mental and physical combi- 
nations it presents ; the adaptation and precision of 
action to effect a definite purpose ; and the apparent 
power to overcome obstacles to its accomplishment, 
not only strike the mind with amazement, but involve 
it in an inexplicable labyrinth of doubt and un- 
certainty. 

The vast number of cases recorded in this depart- 
ment of our subject, should afford abundant material 
from which to determine the laws regulating its opera- 
tions. But upon critical examination, few of them 
offer more than undefined and imperfect sketches of 
its phenomena; and for a philosophical inquiry, fur- 
nish but a slight foundation on which to rest a theory. 

In considering somnambulism, the questions arise, is 
the subject cognisant of surrounding objects ? — and if 
so, by what means ? — so that the relation of mind and 



SOMNAMBULISM. ] 13 

body may be defined, as well as the causes which 
propel their operations. 

The mind, in somnambulic, is circumstanced the 
same as in ordinary sleep, so far at least as regards 
its causes of excitement ; but its activity is infinitely 
more intense. Sleep walking and sleep talking occur 
in the stages of either dreaming or torpor, and are 
governed by their laws. In all perfect cases of som- 
nambulism, the mind is as ignorant of the external 
relations of the body as it is during sound sleep, so 
far as knowledge is derived through the organs of 
special sense ; and therefore we conclude that it can 
have no memory of either the mental or physical 
acts during the paroxysm. But it will be recollected, 
that, when speaking of dreams being remembered in 
part, and in part forgotten, the physical condition 
was in a state of transition, — vacillating between 
dreaming and torpor. And so it is with regard to 
somnambulism ; a part of the acts are remembered, 
sometimes as a dream ; and a part forgotten, according 
to the stage of sleep in which it occurred. 

" Hortius mentions a young nobleman, who was ob- 
served by his brother to rise in his sleep, put on his 
cloak, open the casement, mount by a pulley to the 
roof of the citadel of Brenstein, where he was, tear a 
magpie's nest to pieces, wrap the young ones up in his 
cloak, return to his room, place the cloak with the 



114 SLEEP PYSCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

birds in it near him, and go to bed. In the morning 
he told the adventure as a dream, and was astonished 
when shown the magpies in his cloak, and, when led 
to the roof, to behold the remains of the nest."* In 
this case the object in view was paramount, the senses 
in a measure impressible, the perception of their im- 
pressions clear, and consequently the circumstances 
were remembered. 

By what means does the mind discover that the 
physical acts have in some cases been erroneous, as in 
the instance of the individual shortly to be cited, who 
corrected errors he committed in writing musical airs ? 
The inference is, that the same state here existed that 
we find in mesmeric sleep, both of which, with the 
information we at present possess, are inexplicable; but 
that neither the errors nor corrections were made 
through the assistance of vision, the experiments con- 
clusively determine. 

To illustrate, let us take some of the cases recorded 
in the " Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine — London." 
" This somnambulist was a young priest in a Catholic 
seminary ; the witness and reporter of the facts, the 
Archbishop of Bordeaux, who used to go into his 
chamber after the priest was gone to sleep, and observe 
his proceedings. He sometimes arose from his bed, 

* Binns' Anatomy of Sleep. 



SOMNAMBULISM. 115 

took paper, and wrote sermons. After finishing a 
page, he read (if the act was properly reading) the 
whole aloud ; and, if necessary, erased words, and 
wrote his corrections over the line with great accu- 
racy. I have seen the beginning of one of his ser- 
mons which he had written when asleep ; it was well 
composed, but one correction surprised me : having 
written at first the words 'ce divin enfant,' he had 
afterwards effaced the word divin, and written over it 
adorable. Then perceiving that the ce could not stand 
before the last word, he had dexterously inserted a t, 
so as to make the word cet. 

" The witness, in order to ascertain whether he 
made use of his eyes, put a card under his chin, so as 
to intercept the sight of the paper which was on the 
table ; but he continued to write without perceiving it. 
Wishing to know by what means he judged of the pre- 
sence of objects which were under his eyes, the wit- 
ness took from him the paper on which he was writing, 
and substituted others repeatedly. He always per- 
ceived this by the difference of size, for when a paper 
of exactly the same shape was given to him, he took it 
for his own, and wrote his corrections on places cor- 
responding to those on the paper which had been taken 
away from him. The most astonishing thing is, that 
he could write music with great exactness, tracing on 
it at equal distances the five lines, and putting upon 



116 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

them the clef, flats, and sharps. Afterwards he marked 
the notes, at first white, and then blackened those 
which were to be black ; the words were written under, 
and once happening to make them too long, he quickly 
perceived that they were not exactly under the corres- 
ponding notes ; he corrected this inaccuracy by rub- 
bing out what he had written, and putting the line 
below with the greatest precision." 

This somnambulist had a clear mental perception of 
the results of his operations, but he could not have 
seen them, because an opake body was interposed 
between the organ of vision and the object. Is there 
any evidence that he even felt the paper upon which 
he wrote or the pen held in his hand ? The experi- 
ment of changing the paper for one of a different size 
is not conclusive, for he possessed the power of per- 
ceiving, without the intervention of sight, and probably 
also without the sense of touch. 

" One of Gassendi's somnambulists used to rise and 
dress himself in his sleep, go down to the cellar, and 
draw wine from a cask : he appeared to see in the dark 
as well as in a clear day ; but when he awoke either in 
the street or in the cellar, he was obliged to grope and 
feel his way back to his bed. He always answered his 
wife as if awake, but in the morning recollected nothing 
of what passed." The sense of touch did not guide 
the wanderer here, because the moment this faculty 



SOMNAMBULISM. 117 

was restored to the mind by wakefulness, it was 
scarcely sufficient to conduct him back; "he groped 
his way." All the other senses are as perfectly closed 
as sight and feeling. The somnambulist does not hear, 
but he perceives sounds, and replies to their influence. 
The blast of a trumpet may be blown upon him and 
he hears it not ; but the gentle vibrations of a whisper, 
when in harmony with his train of thought, may be 
perceived. 

" Pigatti says that Negretti sat down to eat a bowl 
of salad which he had prepared. It was taken from 
him, and some strongly seasoned cabbage put in its 
place ; this he eat without perceiving the difference, 
as he did also some pudding which was presently sub- 
stituted. At another time, having asked for wine, he 
drank water which was given to him. He sniffed 
ground coffee for snuff, which he had demanded." 
Again, as related by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the 
subject " asked for a glass of brandy to warm him ; as 
there was none at hand, they gave him water, but he 
detected the deception, and again demanded brandy. 
He drank a glass of strong liquor, and seemed refreshed ; 
but, without awaking, lay down, and continued to 
sleep soundly." Again, Castelli, a sleep-walker, " was 
found one night in the act of translating from Italian 
into French, and looked for words in a dictionary as 
usual, being asleep. His candle being extinguished, 



IIS SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

he found himself to be in the dark, groped for a candle, 
and went to light it again at the kitchen fire." " Ber- 
trand thinks that Castelli did not really experience the 
want of light, because the room was, as we are informed, 
actually illuminated at the time by other candles." 
* * * " When any one conversed with him on a 
subject on which his mind was bent, he gave rational 
answers." In the case of Castelli, the senses appeared 
to be intact when they were impressed in regard to 
the subject-matter of his thoughts," but in all other par- 
ticulars they were closed. He neither heard nor saw, 
but he perceived light and sound when their influences 
were in harmony with his own thoughts. 

Dr. Binns says, " In the capital of the island of Syra, 
there is a young man from a town on the borders of 
the Black Sea, aged eighteen years, tall in stature, and 
of robust constitution, who went to Syra about twelve 
months ago to follow his studies at the Gymnasium. 
It frequently happens, that almost immediately after 
falling asleep, he gets up and makes remarkable decla- 
mations. Sometimes he recites very long speeches 
from Xenophon with perfect correctness, although 
when awake he cannot remember more than a few 
lines. One night he wrote the theme he had to deliver 
the next day. In the morning, having overslept him- 
himself, he was vexed at not having time to prepare 
himself for his tutor, but great was his astonishment 



SOMNAMBULISM. 119 

at finding on his table his stipulated composition, 
written with his own hand, folded, and ready to be 
given in. The professor was surprised at finding it 
so well done, and still more so when the young scholar 
became embarrassed, and unable to answer certain 
questions put to him on the subject. Doubts were 
entertained as to its being his own work ; but a com- 
panion who slept in the same room with him, came 
voluntarily forward, and declared that in the night he 
saw his fellow-student seated at the table writing, and 
calling upon his father to assist him in composing his 
theme. When in a state of somnambulism he plays 
at cards, and uniformly wins. This is attributed to 
his having the faculty at that time of knowing what 
cards are in the hands of the rest of the party. When 
in this state, also, he has been taken by his companions 
to a tavern ; and when, after eating and drinking with 
them, he awoke, he was greatly astonished at finding 
himself where he was. It appears that in this somno- 
lent state his sense of feeling is entirely suspended, 
while all the other senses are alive and active. At 
first the slightest touch would wake him ; but now he 
is totally insensible to any violence, even that which 
would in others, or in himself, when awake, cause pain. 
In general, on coming out of this state of somnambu- 
lism, he is so weak and languid as to faint away. One 
fact is more extraordinary than the rest. One day, 



120 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

when in his dormant state, he announced that three 
persons whom he named were coming to see him ; in 
an hour after, these three persons entered his room." 

Here are fallacious appearances of sensational in- 
tegrity. The error consists in confounding the per- 
ception of an object with the transmission of it by the 
senses. He neither saw, nor heard, nor felt ; but he 
knew he was writing, speaking, and eating by other 
means than through the ordinary channels of informa- 
tion. He had knowledge independent of external sen- 
sation, and held control over his actions ; but on reco- 
very he had no remembrance of what had transpired. 
When " he awoke he was greatly astonished at finding 
himself where he was." 

In all these cases, we think there is abundant evi- 
dence of the absence of external sensation ; but that 
the mind perceives external relation in a certain 
degree, there can be no doubt. The perplexing circum- 
stance is, that while one quickly perceives the differ- 
ence between brandy and water, another drinks water 
and supposes himself refreshed with wine. One, with- 
out perceiving the lights burning in his presence, is 
immediately aware of the extinguishment of his own 
candle, and " gropes his way when in an illuminated 
apartment to relight it." 

Mesmerism is analogous to this peculiar condition 
of mind and sense. The difference is, that in somnam- 



SOMNAMBULISM. 121 

bulism it is spontaneous, and the mental faculties 
acknowledge no impression but what is in harmony 
with their train of thought : while, in mesmeric sleep, the 
mind is directed — not controlled by the mesmerizer. 
And as before stated, w T hen examining the subject of 
animal magnetism, there is probably no power of 
creation in the case, but the mind presents its peculiar 
character when left to its own powers. If the percep- 
tion is obtuse when awake, in sleep it may exhibit the 
same qualities ; and be quite likely, from want of atten- 
tion, to drink water for wine, or sniff ground coffee for 
snuff when offered. 

Not unfrequently fatal accidents happen during the 
perambulations of the sleep-walker. They generally 
occur just as the person is emerging, either sponta- 
neously or otherwise, fx-om the somnambulic state. This, 
however, is not universally the case. The fate of the 
sailor, Jack Sutton, a sleep-walker on shipboard, repre- 
senting the principal personage in a celebrated ghost- 
story, is an exception. He walked overboard while in this 
state in the night, and was lost. Accidents may also 
occur when the somnambulic state is imperfect; the 
influence of external as well as internal causes may so 
perplex the individual, that he is confounded, and lost 
from this circumstance. But when suddenly aroused 
to a realizing sense of his condition, and finding him- 
self in extraordinary situations, such as when awake 



122 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

he would not venture upon, self-possession is lost, and 
he is precipitated from his often giddy heights. 

Dendy says — " In a Gazette of Augsburg I have 
read this sad story : ' Dresden was the theatre of a 
melancholy spectacle on the 29th ult. As early as 
seven in the morning, a female was seen walking on 
the roof of one of the loftiest houses in the city, appa- 
rently occupied in preparing some ornaments as a 
Christmas present. The house -stood as it were alone, 
being much higher than those adjoining it, and to draw 
her from her perilous situation was impossible. Thou- 
sands of spectators had assembled in the streets. It 
was discovered to be a handsome girl, nineteen years 
of age, the daughter of a master-baker, possessing a 
small independence bequeathed to her by her mother. 
She continued her terrific promenade for hours, at 
times sitting on the parapet and dressing her hair. The 
police came to the spot, and various means of preser- 
vation were resorted to. In a few minutes the street 
was thickly strewn with straw, and beds were called 
for from the house, but the heartless father, influenced 
by the girl's stepmother, refused them. Nets were sus- 
pended from the balcony of the first windows. All 
this time the poor girl was walking in perfect uncon- 
sciousness, sometimes gazing towards the moon, and 
at others singing or talking to herself. Some persons 
succeeded in getting on the roof, but dared not 



SOMNAMBULISM. 123 

approach her, for fear of the consequences if they 
awoke her. Towards eleven o'clock she approached 
the very verge of the parapet, leaned forward, and 
gazed upon the multitude beneath. Every one felt 
that the moment of the catastrophe had arrived. She 
rose up, however, and returned calmly to the window 
by which she had gone out. When she saw there 
were lights in the room, she uttered a piercing shriek, 
which was re-echoed by thousands below, and fell dead 
into the street.' " 

By practice, some individuals may accommodate 
themselves to any enterprise within the laws of nature. 
Gall, in alluding to this subject, says, " Some persons 
think that somnambulism is a completely extraordinary 
state, because somnambulists execute during their sleep 
things which they could not accomplish awake : they 
clamber on trees, roofs, &c. All astonishment ceases 
as soon as we reflect upon the circumstances in which 
we do the boldest things, and upon others in which we 
cannot. Any one in a balcony, furnished with a balus- 
trade, could look down from a very high tower, and 
without resting against this balustrade. We walk 
without tottering upon a plank placed upon the parapet. 
To what will not boys accustom themselves in their 
rash sports ? What do not mountaineers in their pur- 
suit of the chamois, rope-dancers, tumblers, and others 
perform ? But take the balustrade from the balcony, 



124 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

let us but discover an abyss to the right and left of 
the plank, and we are lost. Why ? Is it because we 
are not in a condition to walk upon the plank ? No. 
It is because fear has destroyed our confidence in our 
powers. Now let us judge of the somnambulist. He 
sees distinctly what he is about to do, but the organs 
which would warn him of danger are asleep ; he is 
therefore without fear, and executes whatever his 
bodily powers allow him successfully to attempt. But 
wake him : instantly he will perceive his danger, and 
give way. 

Our view of the rationale of somnambulic sleep 
differs materially from that just quoted. The somnam- 
bulist perceives, he does not see whatever he is about 
to do with the visual organs of the insomnist, because 
observations show his eyes to be either closed, or 
rigidly set and staring ; in which case, even when 
awake, he cannot see. Neither does he perceive objects 
through the other external senses as when awake, 
because they also are closed, as experiments prove, to 
the common stimuli applied in the ordinary way. The 
mind in this condition has an external relation sui 
generis, corresponding in some degree with our normal 
existence, and subject to the ordinary governing prin- 
ciple of the normal state. The mind, under any cir- 
cumstances, requires a paramount object to accom- 
plish extraordinary undertakings, and when this object 



SOMNAMBULISM. 125 

is sufficient to absorb and direct the attention solely to 
its accomplishment, we can pursue a path, sufficiently 
capacious to receive our footsteps, without the assist- 
ance of balustrades to insure our safety. Just so with 
the somnambulist ; the object with him is single and 
paramount, and when the immutable laws of nature 
are not infringed, he is just as safe as the most experi- 
enced aeronaut in his undertaking. It is not because 
a part of his mind is asleep, but because the organs 
unnecessary to the accomplishment of his purpose are 
passive, or subdued by the extraordinary activity of 
those engaged. We might further assign in evidence 
of mental sleeplessness, the fact, that change of cir- 
cumstances alters in some instances the object and 
intention of the somnambulist, for when Signor Augus- 
tin — an Italian nobleman and celebrated somnambulist 
— " came below, one of us made a noise by accident ; 
when he appeared frightened, and hastened his steps," 
— " and sometimes he ran as if he were pursued, if the 
least noise was made by those standing round him," — 
and "upon hearing a noise which the servants made 
in the kitchen, he listened attentively, went to 
the door, and held his ear to the key-hole."* In 
this state the mental action is far more powerful to- 
wards the accomplishment of a single purpose than 

* See Pritchard on Insanity. 



126 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

during wakefulness, because when awake the attention 
is divided by the multiplicity of surrounding objects. 

In many cases of somnambulism, the mind seems 
not to participate with the body. The somnambulist 
receives the first impulse from the will ; after which, 
locomotion is continued by the influence of reflex and 
associate action. Dr. Dendy, in alluding to the fact 
that the soldiers, in the retreat of Corunna, slept while 
marching, very philosophically observes that " These 
soldiers did not walk in their sleep, but slept in their 
walk." The case of the individual, related in a former 
chapter, who leaped from the hotel window, and was 
found clinging to a lamp-post, apparently unconscious 
of his situation, was of the same kind. The mind 
required a change of place, and the locomotive appara- 
tus was started by volition. There was no return 
sensation indicating the change. The mind required 
none ; for by its own constitution it inferred that the 
change was made, because it had willed it, and there- 
fore became satisfied ; and locomotion, once induced, 
may be continued by the power of reflex action, which 
is not dependent on the mind, but requires merely the 
stimulus of its own regular series of motion to continue 
in operation until arrested by the will, or overcome by 
physical resistance. Had not the lamp-post intervened, 
he would undoubtedly have progressed until he came 
in contact with some other insurmountable obstacle. 



SOMNAMBULISM. 121 

The consideration of sleep-talking belongs to this 
branch of our subject, because the rationale of its 
phenomena is identical with that of sleep-walking, 
though a much lower degree of mental intensity suffices 
to induce it. Those individuals familiarly denominated 
sleeping preachers, are of this kind ; and the following, 
which Dr. Berkley, the narrator, calls a case of double 
consciousness, is of considerable interest.* 
. "Mrs. N. B., a married woman, aged 39 years, has 
been subject to neuralgia of the face for about 17 
years. She is otherwise a healthy woman. Five or 
six years ago the disease became very violent, and 
assumed a strictly periodic type, returning every two 
weeks — at which time she suffered the most excruciat- 
ing agony in the course of the fifth pair of nerves of 
the right side of the face. After suffering two or three 
hours in this way, she not unfrequently becomes sick 
at the stomach, and would vomit and purge. All these 
symptoms after a while subsiding, she would become 
entirely insensible to all external impressions. In this 
situation she would commence preaching in a loud and 
clear voice, and continue from two to three hours. 
She would then sink down as if she had fainted, and 
in fifteen or twenty minutes awake without the least 
knowledge of what had transpired. 

* Amer. Jour. Med. Science, 1847. 



128 SLEEl' PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

" She had these periodic spells of preaching for five 
or six years, every two weeks regularly, never having 
missed but two or three times. The case having 
attracted much attention, Dr. B. was induced to visit 
the subject of it during one of her attacks, and gave 
the following account of what he observed. He 
arrived at nine o'clock A.M., and found Mrs. B. sitting 
in an arm-chair, suffering all the agony of a severe 
attack of facial neuralgia of the right side, though 
somewhat different from most cases of that disease. 
There was no twitching of the muscles, great tumes- 
cence of the vessels of the face and neck, muscles of 
the neck very rigid, eyes very red, excessive intole- 
rance of light, so much so that she could scarcely bear 
to elevate the eyelids. 

" She says she feels an almost insupportable weight, 
like an incubus, upon her head ; there is an abundant 
secretion of saliva, which is altogether from the right 
side of the mouth. I talked with her about an hour, 
or as long as she was capable of talking. I found her 
a very intelligent woman ; she wished to know if there 
was nothing that would relieve her. I asked her if she 
had undergone any medical treatment. She said she 
had ; that several eminent physicians had given her 
medicine. She had been cupped, her head shaved and 
blistered, ointment of veratria applied to tne course of 
the nerve, and all the noted antiperiodics given in sue- 



SOMNAMBULISM. 129 

cession without the least benefit. She thought that 
under the tonic treatment she had got worse. 

" She continued to get worse and worse from the 
time I went into the room until about eleven o'clock, 
when her eyes closed, and she became perfectly insen- 
sible to external impressions. In this situation she 
commenced talking. 

" She was placed in the sitting posture, in a large 
room where a great number of strangers had collected. 
When she first commenced talking, she appeared to be 
choked with a frothy saliva, but she soon cleared her 
throat, and preached for two hours and ten minutes, in 
a clear and distinct voice — sufficiently loud to be heard 
a hundred yards. Sometimes her appeals would be the 
most pathetic and eloquent I ever heard. The first 
warning you have that she is about to conclude, is the 
free spitting up of this frothy saliva. As soon as that 
appears, she falters and falls over. She continues 
insensible for fifteen or twenty minutes, all the time 
spitting up this saliva, when she awakes by yawning 
like a person who had been asleep, and looks about 
with a vacant stare. She soon, however, regains her 
senses, and looks like another person, and knows no- 
thing of what has transpired. 

" The most remarkable circumstance connected with 
this case is, that she can neither see, hear, nor feel 
during all the time she is preaching. She is not dis- 
6* 



130 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

turbed by any noise that may be made, and if pricked 
by any sharp instrument, does not flinch, and her eyes 
are closed during the whole time." 

Dr. Berkley relates this as a case of double con- 
sciousness, but we do not consider it as such, because 
there was no connexion between the pathological con- 
dition and its preceding homogeneous attacks, although 
the patient did exhibit a periodic abnormal state. For 
an individual to possess double consciousness, there 
must be a corresponding identity in each state of the 
same kind. The mental peculiarities of the abnormal 
states must be in as perfect harmony with each other 
as those of the natural : and the two states must not 
only present a character totally distinct, but each must 
be connected with the pi-eceding states of the same 
kind, so that either condition has a separate and dis- 
tinct consciousness connecting its alternate fragments 
into a perfect whole. In fact, the subject, to be doubly 
conscious, must present, alternately, the mental cha- 
racteristics of separate and distinct individuals. 

The case, however, is important, in that it furnishes 
additional evidence of the dependence of memory upon 
sensational integrity. In the further consideration of 
the subject in its connexion with memory in our con- 
clusion, we shall present a case exhibiting the peculiar 
features of double consciousness. 

The mind in somnambulism is always conscious. It 



SOMNAMBULISM. 131 

may or it may not perceive external relation, but the 
physical phenomena show conclusively that the mental 
being is at work. It will appear, when examining, in 
our concluding remarks, the memorial power, that the 
mind may be cognisant of surrounding circumstances, 
and yet retain no remembrance of them, because sen- 
sation — -the foundation upon which memory rests — is 
wanting. 



CHAPTER V. 



Sleep, with an overpowering influence, wraps us 
into forgetfulness of ourselves. It envelopes in its 
sombre drapery, the votaries of pleasure and the sub- 
jects of sorrow. A helpless — inanimate — unconscious 
submission is yielded to its dominion, and a solemn 
calm rests alike upon all. It dispenses to the fatigued 
frame — refreshment ; to the diseased body — a balm ; 
and to the care-worn, a short oblivion of their woes. 

Is this neutrality of our hopes and fears and passions 
undisturbed ? Does this power, controlling our sensi- 
bilities, shield us from harm ? Do we remain unmo- 
lested in this defenceless condition, regaining bodily 
activity and mental energy ? Or is this state also sub- 
ject to evils ? Alas ! it is ; for dreams do come, that, in 
their varied structure, harass the inmost soul with 
dread, and 

" On his nightmare through the evening fog, 
Flits the squab Fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog." 

Incubus and nightmare are terms applied to a disease, 



INCUBUS. 133 

deeply interesting both to the physician and to the 
patient. To the physician, because no satisfactory 
explanation of its phenomena has been given, all being 
mere speculation not founded on facts, neither support- 
ed by correct pathological reasoning : and to the 
sufferer, for it seizes him under circumstances frightful 
in themselves, occurring mostly at dead of night, when 
assistance is least easily obtained, and he being ren- 
dered totally helpless. 

It makes its attack on the system in that stage of 
sleep when the external functions are impaired, and 
the imagination is free from those restraints imposed 
upon it in the state of wakefulness by the judgment. 
The mind, roving through various scenes and producing 
effects only experienced in dreams, and best described 
by reference to them, arrives at a condition in which 
fear is the most prominent emotion. The dreamer 
often believes himself shipwrecked, and left to the 
fury of the winds and waves ; or he is fast approach- 
ing the brink of a dread precipice, without the power 
to turn aside, and over which he must unavoidably 
fall ; or he is pursued by wild beasts intent on de- 
vouring him, and through all, he feels spell-bound 
and unable to help or defend himself: he struggles with 
all his power to be released from this frightful situation, 
but apparently to no purpose, until at last when he 
considers his destruction inevitable, a sudden bound 



134- SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

frees him from his condition, and a dream is disclosed, 
which he believes to have been the cause of his suf- 
ferings. 

The effects produced by a paroxysm of incubus are 
very great. Immediately after recovery, the pulse is 
a little quickened ; a tremor of the abdominal muscles 
is experienced, and extreme lassitude is felt throughout 
the whole frame. A want of energy characterizes this 
state ; and as the first shades of sleep again descend 
upon him, he very perceptibly feels the approach of 
the disease a second time, but under different circum- 
stances. From a lack of energy to change his position 
and shake off the predisposition now formed, he remains 
quiet, perfectly conscious of the advancing symptoms 
which are gradually stealing over and strengthening 
upon him, until the power of voluntary motion is again 
suspended, and he is in a condition differing from the 
first, inasmuch as he is conscious of his situation. 
He now attempts to change his position, but without 
success, and it is only after repeated trials that he suc- 
ceeds in accomplishing his object. The same lassitude 
continues as after the first attack, and the second will 
be followed by a third with the same symptoms, and 
the third by a fourth, and so on until his exertions are 
sufficient to throw off the disease, by producing an 
action throughout the whole voluntary muscular 
texture. 



INCUBUS. 135 

There is no particular position necessary for the 
occurrence of this disease. It makes its attacks in any 
position that a person can lie in, and the sitting posi- 
tion is not exempt from its effects. 

This disease may be divided into the first and second 
paroxysms, or that which is accompanied by a dream, 
and the succeeding attacks in which we comprehend 
our situation. 

In addition to the feelings described in the first par- 
oxysm, there is the sensation of a load upon the chest, 
and some fancy it a monster attempting to suffocate 
them. From this paroxysm very little information can 
be obtained ; the person on awaking attributes all his 
sufferings to the dream which he considers the cause 
of his distress. 

It is by attending strictly to the phenomena of the 
succeeding attacks, that a knowledge of the pathology 
of the disease can be obtained. In these attacks many 
faculties of the mind are active, and restrained to their 
proper course by the judgment. This is displayed in 
the exertion to move one part of the body and then 
another alternately, knowing that if we succeed, relief 
will be obtained. Neither is the memory dormant, for 
when previously we have been told that some of the 
senses are not impaired, and that we can exercise cer- 
tain muscles, we are sure to make the trial. A person 
laboring under the second paroxysm, if the room be 



136 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

sufficiently light, can see whatever comes directly in 
front of him ; he can hear the breathing of his bed- 
fellow, and is conscious of conversation when it takes 
place in his presence ; he has the sense of touch, for he 
is aware of his contact with the bed-clothes, and also 
of irregularities in their position under him ; he can 
move his under jaw with ease perpendicularly, but has 
no power to produce a lateral motion ; he knows that 
he breathes, but with much difficulty ; he has the power 
of natural voice, but not of speech, and volition is 
perfect, but the organs of locomotion are not obedient 
to its mandates. 

These are the facts upon which we are to determine 
its pathological character, and upon which we are to 
build our hope of success in removing the obscurity 
hitherto surrounding the location and cause of this 
disease. 

The remote causes of this affection are violent men- 
tal agitation — fear — also great fatigue of body, and in 
truth whatever wearies the mind or body beyond their 
healthy endurance. But • the most prolific cause is 
overloading the stomach before retiring to rest. The 
proximate cause consists in one part of the system 
requiring a greater amount of nervous power than is 
naturally appropriated to it ; and as the extremities of 
the nerves cannot provide the deficiency, this extra 
quantity must be supplied from some other part ; con- 



INCUBUS. 13 1 

sequently the part from which the deficiency is made 
up is left in an unnatural condition, and thus results 
this affection. 

This disease we consider to be purely nervous. The 
attendant dyspnoea and congestion are its consequent, 
and not the cause, as has been believed and supported 
by pathologists. But before proceeding further, we 
would remark, that the nervous function is subject to 
the strangest anomalies connected with our system: — 
that its various uses are continually merging into light : 
— that previous to the late discoveries of distinct func- 
tions connected with different filaments and the regu- 
larity of the origin of each set of nerves, and that their 
property depends upon the part from which they are 
derived, the subject was enveloped in comparative 
obscurity. The discoveries lately made in the pheno- 
mena of reflex and associate action, have served to 
dissipate, in some degree, the uncertainty in which the 
physiologist has been involved. It is by carefully 
regarding these discoveries, in connexion with the 
phenomena presented by the disease, that its pathology 
can be determined. 

The anterior column of the spinal marrow and the 
nerves arising therefrom, are the seat of incubus. This 
being the case, the nerves of feeling, arising from the 
posterior column ; of respiration, arising from the 
lateral column ; of vision and hearing, originating 



138 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

from the brain ; and the brain itself ; are not involved 
in the disease. We are now able to account for its 
various phenomena. 

The faculty of the mind in reasoning, the active 
state of the memory and volition, are qualifications 
belonging exclusively to the brain, and are not the 
subjects of this disease. 

The sense of touch is the peculiar property of the 
filaments originating in the posterior column of the 
spinal marrow, and therefore is not operated upon by 
this affection. 

The act of respiration is continued, but somewhat 
impaired, being very laborious. The muscles perform- 
ing this operation are supplied with three sets of 
nerves, all differing in their functions ; one set from 
the anterior column, being the nerves of voluntary 
motion, and combined with another set from the 
posterior column, conveying sensation ; and a third 
set from the lateral column, being those of respiration. 
The first set, which is the seat of the disease, may be 
regarded as the cause of the dyspnoea. The process of 
breathing is effected by the nerves of respiration in 
conjunction with those of volition, the first not being 
sufficient to the perfect performance of this office 
without the co-operation of the last. If from any 
cause the voluntary muscular action is suspended, the 
motion of the thorax is diminished, and an intolerable 



INCUBUS. 139 

sense of pressure and suffocation is the result. From 
this circumstance the name of the disease originated, 
viz. incubus, from the Latin, signifying one who lies 
upon. The tremulous motion experienced in the abdo- 
minal muscles, after the paroxysm, we conceive to be 
caused by an irregular return of nervous influence to 
them. 

All the muscles of the face are subject to the will, 
but are unaffected by the disease, and the countenance 
expresses great anxiety. These muscles, with many of 
the neck, are supplied by the portio dura, which is 
a nerve of respiration, expression, and volition in the 
muscles to which it is distributed. This accounts for 
our being able to move the lower jaw in a perpendi- 
cular, but not in a lateral direction ; the muscles of 
the face and throat being competent to produce this 
motion without the assistance of those of mastication, 
these latter being supplied with a branch from the fifth 
pair, and of these muscles the pterygoideus externus 
is that which causes the lateral movement ; over these 
muscles of the jaw we have no control. 

To account for the faculty we possess of seeing 
objects that are in a line perpendicular to the face 
during the paroxysm, and only those in that direction, 
requires our attention to the functions of the various 
parts of which the organ of vision is composed. 

It will be readily perceived, that as the optic nerve 



140 SLEEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

arises from the brain, its functions cannot be impaired ; 
but when we consider that the situation of the globus 
oculi during sleep excludes the light, both from the ele- 
vated position of the pupil and the closure of the pal- 
pebrse, and in addition to these, the inactive condition 
of the voluntary muscles during the paroxysm of 
incubus, we are perplexed to solve the problem 
Medical philosophy, however, furnishes the clue by 
which to unravel the mystery. 

The muscles of the eyelids are supplied with 
nervous twigs from the portio dura, and hence are 
not under the influence of the disease. But how shall 
we account for the phenomena, when it is known that 
the pupil is raised above the margin of the elevated 
lid ? The ball rises from the relaxation of the supe- 
rior oblique, and this muscle is furnished with a dis- 
tinct nerve, which arises from the summit of the 
column that originates the nerves of respiration; con- 
sequently the disease does not affect this muscle. Now 
all the motions of the superior palpebra are accompa- 
nied with an opposite movement of the superior 
oblique, as when the lid falls the eyeball rolls upwards, 
and vice versa. Their actions are attendant upon each 
other, and are both voluntary and involuntary. The 
nerves of respiration endow their muscles with this 
double quality. Their movements only open the eye 
and bring the pupil in the most anterior direction, but 



INCUBUS. 141 

further command over the organ they have not. The 
recti muscles give the various directions to the eye, 
but they receive their nerves from the motor division, 
and are solely for voluntary motion, consequently 
under the influence of the disease ; so that, although 
we cannot roll the eye in its orbit, yet we can see 
whatever comes directly in front of us. 

The sense of hearing is conveyed to the sensorium 
by the portio mollis, a nerve originating in the brain. 
But the function of this apparatus would avail nothing 
without the action of the muscles connected with the 
internal structure of the ear. These muscles are 
furnished with branches from the fifth and seventh 
pair of nerves ; and as the seventh pair are nerves of 
muscular motion to the face and neck, we may safely 
conclude that the same influence is exerted on these 
muscles producing the necessary action for conveying 
sounds. 

The larynx receives its nerves in four branches from 
the par vagum, which is the principal nerve of respira- 
tion, and by these we are endowed with natural voice, 
which we are capable of exercising when under the 
influence of this disease ; but of the faculty of speech 
we are deprived, the tongue being furnished with its 
nerves of voluntary motion from the anterior column 
of the spinal marrow, being the twelfth pair of Mr. 
Charles Bell. 



142 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

The action of the heart continues. This centre of 
the circulation, so necessary to the continuance of life 
under all circumstances, is supplied with branches 
from the par vagum, and when its functions are de- 
ranged in this disease, it is from sympathy with the 
lungs. The motions of the heart are less under the 
influence of that portion of the brain manifesting the 
passions or feelings than the lungs are, and it becomes 
disturbed, not from its dependence upon the brain, but 
from its association with respiration ; and as before 
stated, the derangement of respiration is caused by a 
suppression of nervous influence to the voluntary 
muscles of the thorax and abdomen. 

Rest, in general, retards the healthy pulse, but when 
the stomach is oppressed with a heavy meal, and the 
person falls asleep, the pulse becomes much quickened. 
As the powers of volition subside, those of organic 
action increase, and the action of the heart and 
arteries is augmented by the aggravated operations 
of the stomach. This being the case, incubus can- 
not be the effect of stagnation of the blood, for it 
invariably occurs under some extra irritation. The 
theory that this is a disease of congestion, is entirely 
hypothetical. The symptoms indicating such a state 
of the vascular system are neither sufficiently nume- 
rous nor well marked to have any weight in fixing it 
as the proximate cause. What congestion there may 



be is more easily accounted for as an effect than a 
cause of this disease. 

Incubus differs from coma, inasmuch as in the latter 
there is neither consciousness of surrounding circum- 
stances nor volition ; and in asphyxia, consciousness is 
apparently lost, volition is suspended, and there are no 
perceptible respiratory or arterial actions. There is 
no suspension of volition during the paroxysm of night- 
mare ; the endeavors of the victim to escape the 
sufferings are vehement. It differs from revery, as 
well as catalepsy, in being intercepted by the action 
of the voluntary muscles, excited either by the will 
or by the application of external force. After a 
paroxysm of nightmare, the ideas and sensations are 
distinctly remembered ; but on recovery from the for- 
mer affections, there is no remembrance of what 
passed during their continuance. They leave a blank 
in the memory of existence. 

It is our settled conviction that death never is an 
effect of this disease, because, when the painful sen- 
sations acquire a certain degree of severity, the reflex 
power will come into play and end the disease. We 
know from experiment that motion intercepts its 
progress, and we also know that the voluntary muscles 
universally come into action previous to dissolution, 
unless it supervenes upon typhus, where the irritability 
of the system is worn out, or upon the effect of elec- 



144 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

tricity, or the exhibition of some of the virulent poisons, 
as hydrocyanic acid ; and as before remarked, this action 
of the voluntary muscles, by equalizing the nervous 
influence, ends the paroxysm, or in other words, the 
disease destroys itself. 

The course of treatment to be pursued in this 
affection is prophylactic. The principal indication is, 
to keep the nervous influence as equally balanced as 
possible. This is to be accomplished by preventing 
undue excitement in the thoracic or abdominal viscera. 
Food should not be taken in large quantities immediate- 
ly before retiring to rest, because when the stomach is 
engorged, it requires, under all circumstances, a greater 
amount of nervous influence than is appropriated to its 
natural process of digestion, but more particularly in 
the state of sleep, for then digestion proceeds more 
rapidly, and the action of the voluntary organs having 
ceased, the whole current of nervous power expended 
on them in wakefulness, is drawn to the stomach with 
go much avidity that they are left without a sufficient 
amount to be acted upon by the will, and thus arises 
this affection. 

To those habitually afflicted with this malady, we 
would recommend an alarm watch, set to awake them 
at short intervals, and kept at such a distance from their 
beds, as to oblige them to leave it whenever it required 
resetting. The voluntary action thus produced will 



INCUBUS. 145 

be sufficient to equalize the nervous influence. For 
the digestive process decreases in proportion to the 
return of voluntary action. 

In conclusion : first, this disease is purely nervous : 
secondly, it is consequent upon a deficiency of nervous 
power in one part of the system, occasioned by a 
greater demand for it in another part ; and lastly, it is 
confined to that division of the nervous texture de- 
signed entirely for voluntary motion, leaving all other 
functions of the organization in their normal con- 
dition. 

Note. — With the exception of some unimportant alterations and 
corrections, the preceding remarks on Incubus were published by» 
the author in Vol. XV. of the Amer. Jour. Med. Sciences for 1834. 
Our apology for republishing it is, that it forms a portion of the 
general subject under consideration, and from further experience 
(for we have suffered from its attacks since our earliest remem- 
brance), the conviction that the views then expressed were patho- 
logically correct, has been greatly strengthened. 



CHAPTER VI. 



It is not our intention to examine the causes of 
trance, much less to give a detailed history of this 
singular affection ; but for the purpose of showing the 
connexion between sensation and memory, it becomes 
necessary to present its leading physical features, and 
•to exhibit, as far as may be, the condition of mind 
during its continuance. 

Physically considered, it presents the ordinary 
appearance of the body after dissolution ; and exhibits 
the mind either in an unconscious state as regards 
external relation, or a susceptibility to surrounding 
circumstances. 

We find the symptoms admirably detailed by Mac- 
nish in his Philosophy of Sleep. He says : " During 
its continuance, the whole body is cold, rigid, and 
inflexible ; the countenance without color ; the eyes 
fixed and motionless ; while the breathing and the 
pulsations of the heart are, to all appearances, at an 
end. The mental powers, also, are generally suspended, 
and participate in the universal torpor which pervades 



TRANCE. 14*7 

the frame. In this extraordinary condition the person 
may remain for several days, having all, or nearly all, 
the characteristics of death impressed upon him." 

To communicate its phenomena more particularly, 
we will relate several cases, as nearly to the purpose 
as may be. 

A young woman, who for a long time had been con- 
fined with a nervous derangement, gradually failed, 
until at last, as was supposed by her attendants, she 
died, but in fact had only fallen into trance, from which 
she recovered after the burial service was nearly com- 
pleted, and the coffin lid was about to be nailed down. 
During the whole period she was cognisant of her 
condition by the senses of hearing and touch. 

"It seemed to her," she said, "as if she was in a 
dream, and that she was really dead; yet she was 
perfectly conscious of all that happened around her in 
this dreadful state. She distinctly heard her friends 
speaking, and lamenting her death, at the side of her 
coffin. She felt them pull on her dead clothes and lay 
her in it. This feeling produced a mental anxiety 
which is indescribable. She tried to cry, but her soul 
was without the power, and could not act in her body. 
She had the contradictory feeling, as if she were in 
the body, and yet not in it, at one and the same time. 
It was equally impossible for her to stretch out her 
arm, or to open her eyes, or to cry, although she con- 



148 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

tinually endeavored to do so. The internal anguish 
of her mind was, however, at its utmost height when 
the funeral hymns were begun to be sung, and when 
the lid of the coffin was about to be nailed on. The 
thought that she was to be buried alive was the one 
that gave activity to the soul, and caused it to operate 
on her corporeal frame."* 

Dr. Duncan of Edinburgh relates the case of a 
" female who was about to be interred alive. She 
heard the conversation of the persons present, endured 
the horrors of seeing her own body prepared for the 
grave, of being laid out, and the toes tied together, and 
the chin and jaws enveloped in a bandage ! but, when 
her agony reached a certain point, the spell was broken, 
she shouted, and was saved. "f Dr. Duncan considered 
this a case of catalepsy, but Dr. Binns, more correctly, 
thinks it one of trance. 

In these two extraordinary cases of trance, it is 
evident that the several senses were keenly alive to 
external impressions. 

Let us now take an instance where the patient was, 
so far as can be determined, unconscious of all 
about her. 

"Mrs. Godfrey, sister to the great Duke of Marl- 
borough, had been for a long time ill, in consequence 

* Psychological Magazine. f Binns's Anatomy of Sleep. 



TRANCE. 149 

of anxiety brought on by the recent death of the duke ; 
but, one Sunday, fancying herself better than usual, 
determined to rise, and go to chapel. Probably from 
unaccustomed exertion, or absolute debility, as she was 
dressing for that purpose, she fell down, and to all 
appearance expired. The screams of her attendant, 
and a lady who was in the room with her, brought 
Colonel Godfrey to their assistance, who, probably 
having seen persons similarly attacked, directed that 
she should be immediately put to bed, and that two 
persons should sit up constantly with her, till positive 
symptoms appeared of dissolution. The opinion of the 
physician was that life was extinct, and his friends 
entreated Colonel Godfrey to allow her to be interred ; 
but he resisted all their persuasions, continuing firmly 
to adhere to his first resolution, until the Sunday 
following, when exactly at the same hour as the syn- 
cope, asphyxia, or trance, had attacked her on the pre- 
ceeding Sunday, signs of returning animation were 
perceived in the body, and she awoke just as the 
church-bell was ringing for service, which so perfectly 
eradicated, says the authoress, every trace from her 
memory of her insensibility, that she blamed her 
attendants for not waking her in time to go to church, 
as she had proposed to do. Colonel Godfrey, taking 
advantage of her unconsciousness of what had occurred, 
gave orders that she should by no means be made 



150 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

acquainted with what had happened, lest it should 
make a melancholy impression on her mind ; and it 
is supposed that to the day of her death she remained 
ignorant of the infliction." 

There are many singular instances of anomalous 
states on record, which, by different psychologists, are 
treated of under various denominations of disease. 
]\icolai read to the Royal Society of Berlin in 1799, a 
Memoir of Spectres, in which we find the following 
case. He says, "My much-lamented friend, Moses 
Mendeljohn, had, in the year 1792, by too intense 
an application to study, contracted a malady, which 
abounded with particular psychological apparitions. 
For upwards of two years he was incapacitated from 
doing anything; he could neither read nor think, 
and was rendered utterly incapable of supporting any 
loud noise. If any one talked to him rather in a lively 
manner, or if he himself happened to be disposed to 
lively conversation, he fell in the evening into a very 
alarming species of catalepsy, in which he saw and 
heard everything that passed around him, without 
being able to move a limb. If he had heard any lively 
conversation during the day, a stentorian voice repeat- 
ed to him, while in the fit, the particular words or syl- 
lables that had been pronounced, with an impressive 
accent, or loud emphatic tone, and in such a manner 
that his ears reverberated." 



TRANCE. 151 

Nicolai relates this case as a " species of catalepsy," 
and Dr. Binns says, " It is, more correctly speaking, 
one of trance." We think it was not catalepsy, 
because the senses received and conveyed impressions, 
and the memory retained them. It was not trance, we 
apprehend, because none of the symptoms of that mor- 
bid state accompanied it ; he was not even thought to 
be dead. It could not have been incubus, which it 
very nearly assimilated, for the causes are incompati- 
ble with the pathology — it did not supervene on sleep, 
and its phenomena were not limited to circumstances 
present, but revert to what had already transpired. 
Such a case, full of interest to the psychologist, we 
conceive to be one of hallucination, associated with 
excessive irritability of the auditory nerve, and belong- 
ing to neither class in which it has been placed. The 
instance of a lady who was in the habit of ejaculating 
" Oh Christ !" on every trifling occasion, to be related 
when examining catalepsy, is of the same character ; 
and both, in a psychological point of view, bear con- 
siderable resemblance to the case of Tasso. 

On this occasion we feel constrained to digress 
somewhat from the psychology of our subject, for the 
purpose of giving a few instances in which persons 
have been buried alive while in this state. There is, 
probably, no single idea so replete with horror, as that 
of being interred before life is extinct ; and yet the not 



152 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

uncommon practice of burial, ere the sun has twice 
set upon the lifeless body, is witnessed without any 
emotion, ©r even a thought that this may by possibility 
be the unhappy result. This custom is so reprehensible, 
that in the absence of affection, duty, or respect for 
the cast-off earthly tenement of a divine emanation, 
the law should specify the time to elapse between 
death and sepulture when positive evidence of dissolu- 
tion is absent, to save from the horrors of a living 
tomb. Every individual is deeply interested in this 
subject, for so long as the present custom is allowed, 
each and all of us are liable to suffer the agonies of 
a death so dreadful. 

It may be asked, if we are liable to deception in 
regard to the presence of the vital principle, by what 
means shall it be tested beyond the possibility of error ? 
The answer is, that in the absence of organic lesion, 
decomposition is the only positive evidence that life 
has departed ; for as soon as life is extinct, chemical 
affinity is busy in re-arranging the particles of the life- 
less mass. And still, great circumspection is required 
in determining when this change has taken place, be- 
cause the odor of gases continually escaping from the 
body may possibly be the cause of error in decision. 
It appears from late experiments and observations, that 
flaccidity of the iris after death may be used as a test. 
"M. Rippault proposes to apply the circumstance of 



TRANCE. 153 

the iris becoming flaccid after death as a means of 
distinguishing between real and apparent death ; for 
in the former case he finds that the pupil loses its cir- 
cular form when the globe of the eye is compressed in 
two opposite directions ; but, on the contrary, retains 
its round form so long as life and the power of vision 
remain."* But as this may prove erroneous, we repeat 
that the only reliable test is that of chemical decom- 
position. 

We present a few cases of premature interment : — 
"Upon our arrival in Dublin, my mother and myself 
were very kindly received by Dr. Walker. The 
doctor, at this time, was writing a treatise against the 
Irish custom of burying the dead within a few hours 
after their decease. When my mother heard on what 
subject he was writing, she related to him the story of 
Mrs. Godfrey, and as soon as she had concluded it, 
she promised, that if she should be in the same kingdom 
with him when he died, she would attend to the corpse, 
and take care that it was not entombed whilst there 
was the least probability of return to life. * * * 
The sequel of the story is, that, some time after, Dr. 
Walker fell ill of fever, and Mrs. Bellamy, one 
afternoon, sending to inquire after him, the servant 
returned, and informed her, that he had died during 

* American Journal Med. Sciences, 1847. 
7* 



154 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

the night, and that they were going to bury him : she 
added, that as they were about to shroud the body, the 
orifices which had been made in the arms for letting 
blood, had bled afresh. For reasons which are stated, 
neither Mrs. Bellamy nor her mother could go to the 
doctor's that night, and they therefore sent the servant 
in a coach, directing, if the body was interred, to 
have it taken up at all costs, for they had learned that 
Mrs. Walker had been persuaded by her sister to leave 
the house, and retire with her to Dunleary. The 
servant, while on her way, either from apprehension 
or love of company, contrived to take several persons 
with her, and, on arriving at the doctor's, found the 
body had been interred immediately after she had left, 
lest the disease of which he had died should be infec- 
tious. She also learned that, Mrs. Walker being a 
dissenter, the body had been interred in the Anabaptist 
burying-ground, at the other end of the town. She 
proceeded therefore in search of the sexton, still 
accompanied by her friends, but as they could not find 
his house, they clambered over the gate, and got round 
the grave, where the servant alleged she heard a 
groan. About daybreak, by means of some laborers 
who informed them where he lived, they found the 
sexton, who, after considerable hesitation, disinterred 
the body ; and, on opening the coffin, — ' I shudder 
while I relate the horrid scene,' says the authoress, — 



TRANCE. 155 

' they found the body now totally deprived of life, but 
observed that the doctor had endeavored to burst it 
open, had turned upon his side, and the arms had bled 
afresh ! The family, however, hearing of the circum- 
stance, the body was ordered to be re-interred, and the 
affair was hushed up." * 

Also from the same work, " An inhabitant of the 
Commune of Eymet (Dordogne)," says the Presse, 
" being attacked with a constant inability to sleep, 
applied to a medical man, who ordered him a sleeping 
potion. He soon fell asleep, but the next day, remain- 
ing in the same state of repose, his family got alarmed, 
and some one attempted to bleed him. No blood fol- 
lowing the lancet, a more minute examination was 
instituted, and it was declared that he was dead. He 
was buried, but some time after it was suspected that 
the potion might have caused his apparent death. The 
coffin was in consequence opened, and the body was 
found turned completely round. The man had been 
buried in a trance, and had evidently attempted to 
force himself from his horrible prison." 

" Singular and distressing affair: — A highly respect- 
able gentleman of Baltimore city, who transacted a 
mercantile business on the wharf, was taken sick and 
died, as was supposed, a short time since. Being a 

* Dr. Binns's Anatomy of Sleep. 



156 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

native of an adjoining city, his wife and friends desired 
to inter his remains there, and his body was accordingly 
placed in a coffin and conveyed to that city. When 
the coffin arrived, it was opened in order to transfer 
the remains to a more suitable one, which had been 
prepared for the final interment. When the lid was 
removed, the body was found lying upon the face, 
which upon examination was bruised. A moisture 
was observed upon the skin, and on a close examina- 
tion, it was found that the vital spark had not as yet 
fled. AH the restoratives that the best medical skill 
could advise, were used, and the man was actually 
revived and lived for two days afterwards, before the 
' spirit departed unto him that gave it.' No doubt 
was entertained here of the decease, and the feelings 
of relatives and friends at such a discovery cannot be 
for one moment imagined."* 

The St. Louis Republican for December, 1843, con- 
tains the following : " Rescue from a living grave : — A 
young lady, belonging to a Jewish family in this city, 
died on Tuesday of a nervous disease, and yesterday 
her friends started with her remains for interment. 
According to a Jewish custom, the body is taken to 
the grave-yard in a square box, in the same covering 
in which the deceased person has expired, and there 

* Philadelphia Ledger, June, 1847. 



TRANCE. 157 

in a house appropriated for that purpose, the female 
friends of the family unrobe the body, wash it with 
cold water, and anoint it for its last resting-place. 

"While performing this ancient custom upon the 
body of this supposed inanimate corpse, a healthful 
warmth evaporated from it, and evident signs of life 
became manifest ; the fact was announced by the 
females, physicians were sent for, and the sorrowful cer- 
tainty of death which overshadowed the countenances 
of friends, gave place to a gleam of hope. On the ar- 
rival of the physicians, the certainty of her being alive 
was established and means taken to fan the spark into 
health." 

Again, "In October, 1830, a servant girl, who had 
retired to bed in apparently perfect health, was found 
the following morning, as it was supposed, dead. A 
surgeon who was sent for, pronounced her to be cer- 
tainly dead, and stated that she had probably been so 
for some hours. A coroner's inquest was summoned 
for four o'clock of the same day to inquire into the 
cause of death, and directions were given that a post- 
mortem inspection of the body should be made in the 
meantime. The reporter of the case was requested to 
give his assistance. Accompanied by the surgeon who 
had been consulted, he went to the house about two 
o'clock for the purpose of making the inspection. The 
deceased was found lying on the bed, in an easy pos- 



158 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

ture, on her left side, her body forming somewhat of a 
semicircle. The countenance was pallid, but so per- 
fectly placid and composed as to give her the appear- 
ance of being in a deep sleep. The heat of the body, 
although she must have been dead eight or ten hours, 
was not in the least diminished. The room was care- 
fully searched, but nothing in the shape of poison, nor 
any other means of self-destruction, could be discovered. 
Every article of apparel lay round, as might be supposed 
to have been left by a person going to bed in perfect 
health as usual. The heat of the body not diminishing, 
a vein was opened, and various stimuli applied, but 
without producing any signs of resuscitation. The 
respiratory and circulatory process had ceased ; no 
artery could be felt pulsating. Two hours had now 
elapsed since their arrival, and the parties still hesi- 
tated to perform the inspection, when a message was 
sent to them stating that the jury were waiting for their 
evidence. The inspection was then commenced, but 
on removing the body for the purpose, the warmth and 
pliancy of the limbs were such as to give the examiners 
the idea that they were inspecting a living subject. 
The internal cavities were so warm that a very copious 
steam issued from them when they were laid open. All 
the viscera were healthy, there were no signs of dis- 
ease ; nothing appeared to account for death, and from 
what they saw, the inspectors regretted that they had 



TRANCE. 159 

not postponed the examination until the signs of death 
had been completely manifested. For obvious reasons, 
the name of the place where this extraordinary case 
occurred, and the name of the reporter, were suppressed. 
He had evidently communicated the details in a fit of 
remorse for his precipitancy."* 

The Paris Constitutionnel, 1846, states that the cases 
of premature interments prevented by fortuitous cir- 
cumstances amounted in France since the year 1833, 
to ninety-four. Of these, 35 persons awoke of them- 
selves from their lethargy at the moment the funeral 
ceremony was about to commence; 13 recovered in 
consequence of the affectionate care of their families ; 
7 in consequence of the fall of the coffins in which they 
were inclosed ; 9 owed their recovery to wounds in- 
flicted by the needle in sewing their winding sheet ; 5 
to the sensation of suffocation they experienced in their 
coffins ; 19 to their interment having been delayed by 
fortuitous circumstances; and six to their interment 
having been delayed in consequence of doubts having 
been entertained of their death. 

Dr. Struve, in an essay on the art of recovering 
suspended animation, makes the following re- 
marks : — " The Earth-bath is not only useful for 
persons struck by lightning, but may also be benefi- 

* London Medical Gazette. 



160 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

cially applied in other cases of apparent death. Its 
efficacy is partly owing to the proportionate warmth, 
and partly to the invigorating vapors of the earth. 
It is a common practice among miners, when one of 
their companions is suffocated by mephitic air, and 
drops down lifeless, to bury him in the ground to his 
neck, and at the same time to sprinkle his face with 
cold water. If in very frosty weather it were practi- 
cable to dig the ground, the earth-bath would afford an 
excellent and novel process for the resuscitation of those 
apparently destroyed by cold. The following anecdote 
on this subject deserves attention. 

" A beggar arrived very late at night, and almost 
frozen to death, at a German village ; and observing 
the school-house open, he resolved to sleep there. 
The next morning, the school-boys found the poor man 
sitting motionless in the- room, and hastened, affrighted, 
to inform the schoolmaster of what they had seen. 
The villagers, supposing the beggar to be dead, in- 
terred him in the evening. During the night, the 
watchman heard a knocking in the grave, accom- 
panied by lamentations ; he gave information to the 
bailiff of the village, who declined to listen to his tale. 
Soon afterwards the watchman returned to the grave, 
and again heard a hollow noise, interrupted by sighs. 
He once more hastened to the magistrate, earnestly 
soliciting him to cause the grave to be opened; but 



TRANCE. 161 

the latter, being irresolute, delayed this measure till 
the next morning ; when he applied to the sheriff* who 
lived at a distance from the village, in order to obtain 
the necessary directions. He was, however, obliged 
to wait some time before an interview took place. 
The more judicious sheriff severely censured the 
magistrate for not having opened the grave on the 
information of the watchman, and desired him to 
return and cause it to be opened without delay. On 
his arrival the grave was immediately opened ; but, 
just Heaven! what a sight! the poor wretched man, 
after having recovered life in the grave, had expired 
for want of air. In his anguish and desperation, he 
had torn the flesh from his arms. All the spectators 
were struck with horror at this dreadful scene." 

Should the views of our German author relative to 
the influence of the earth-bath be correct, what a 
warning have we in the instance before us, to be 
doubly cautious in submitting the body to a process 
that may again reanimate its slumbering energies, only 
to consign it to the unimaginable terrors of a living 
tomb ! 

When, in our concluding remarks, we come to con- 
sider memory in its connexion with, and its depend- 
ence upon external sensation, the psychological appli- 
cation of trance will more fully appear. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CATALEPSY. 

It is not our purpose to give a detailed account of 
catalepsy : this would be foreign to the objects of this 
work ; but we shall treat it only as a collateral branch 
of our subject. The distinction, however, between 
catalepsy and other affections likely to be mistaken 
for it, will be examined and pointed out. 

The physical diagnostic of catalepsy is a wax-like 
flexibility of the voluntary system, so that in whatever 
position the body or limbs may be placed, if within 
the base of sustentation, it will be retained while the 
paroxysm continues. £|?he psychological condition is 
marked by an entire disassociation of the mind with 
external things. The result of such a combination is 
perfect rest of the locomotive apparatus, absence of 
external sensation, loss of consciousness of surrounding 
objects, and obliteration of memory for the time being. 

There is a large class of nervous affections which 
in some particulars resemble catalepsy, and are so 
often confounded with it, that its pathognomonic 
character is not unfrequently lost sight of. Trance, 



CATALEPSY. 163 

incubus, epilepsy, hysteria, re very, and several other 
anomalous affections, are frequently regarded as cases 
of this disease. fi 

For instance, " A lady, the mother of an adult family, 
and inclined to obesity, had acquired the reprehensible 
custom of exclaiming upon the most trifling occasion, 
oh Christ ! — and it happened one day, sitting alone at 
work as was her custom, she dropped her thimble, and 
in stooping to pick it up overbalanced herself, and 
nearly fell on her face, when she uttered the words oh 
Christ I On regaining her seat, she felt that the blood 
had flown to her head, and put up her hands to her 
eyes, and closed them to relieve herself. On opening 
them, she saw, immediately sitting before her, a figure 
like a human creature ; but, instead of hair growing 
from each side of the head, long fleshy strings knotted 
here and there like stems of parsley, depended to its 
shoulders and chest ; and as it leaned the head upon 
the hands, the elbows* of which rested on its knees, it 
rocked itself backwards and forwards, exclaiming every 
time it stooped, oh Christ ! She became instantly 
transfixed, and remained in that position probably half 
an hour, when the servant entered and found her limbs 
rigid, and her eyes wide open, and staring as if at some 
object before her. Her screams procured assistance ; 
and active remedies being employed, she recovered her 
senses, and related what we have just mentioned. For 



164 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

a long time afterwards, we believe for five or six years, 
at the same hour every day, if sitting down, she was 
seized in the same manner, and saw the same horrible 
apparition before her." 

The case of this " lady," given in the books as cata- 
lepsy, we conceive to be an instance of hallucination, 
induced by cerebral congestion, somewhat resembling 
the character of that with which the poet Tasso was 
afflicted, but associated with involuntary muscular 
contractions. It was not catalepsy, because conscious- 
ness, sensation, and memory were present, and the 
muscular system was rigid. 

" Dr. Gooch met with a case, supervening on puer- 
peral melancholia, in a female debilitated by repeated 
miscarriages. The trunk, as she lay in bed, was raised 
to an obtuse angle, and retained this painful posture; 
the limbs remained in any position in which they were 
placed ; and if set on her feet, the slightest push threw 
her off her balance, nor did she make any effort to 
regain it. The eyes were open, and the pupil, though 
dilated, contracted on the application of a strong light. 
She had three of these attacks, each of which lasted 
several hours, and recurred at intervals of one or two 
days." These symptoms correspond with the essen- 
tial character of catalepsy, and it was undoubtedly a 
genuine instance of the disease. 

A case of catalepsy, induced by Animal Magnetism, 



CATALEPSY. 165 

an account of which we published in the " American 
Journal of the Medical Sciences," in 1842, we here 
transcribe. 

The subject was a female, sixteen years of age, san- 
guineo-nervous temperament, in good health, who had 
passed the change of puberty without derangement of 
constitution, and is competent to perform the amount 
of labor that falls to the lot of persons in an humble 
station in society. 

Lest the imputation of sustaining the many wild va- 
garies of Animal Magnetism should be attributed to this 
article, it will be necessary to remark, that such is not 
its object. The permanent existence of that subject 
of research must stand or fall on its own merits ; but 
the admission of individual facts, established by con- 
currence of a plurality of the senses, and which are 
necessary to elucidate important phenomena, is the 
province of true philosophy. 

Its influence in this instance* was to produce the 
diagnostic symptoms of complete catalepsy. The 
patient, after having submitted to the manipulations of 
the magnetizer for the space of fifteen minutes, was in 
a state of sleep so deep, that all the stimuli that could 
with safety be applied to the senses, did not disturb 
the profundity of her slumbers. The needle was ap- 
plied to the dermoid texture, torpedoes were repeatedly 
discharged within a few feet of the organs of audition — 



166 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

lights were presented to the apparatus of vision — the 
vapor of ammonia inhaled in respiration, and gene- 
ral concussion applied to her whole system, without 
eliciting any acknowledgment. During this condition, 
her extremities could be placed in any position, which 
their waxlike flexibility would maintain ; and an erect 
posture was secure without extraneous support, when 
the feet were so placed as to bring the centre of gra- 
vity within the base of sustentation. The respiration 
resembled that of ordinary sleep, and the arterial action 
was a little excited. The eyelids, when separated, 
exhibited the globus oculi under the control of the infe- 
rior oblique muscle ; and upon removing the fingers, the 
lids would immediately close. The lower jaw retained 
the position in which it was placed by force. 

These unequivocal cataleptic symptoms were suc- 
ceeded by a development of the integrity of the mental 
organs, while separated from surrounding objects by 
the obliteration (for the time being) of the external 
senses. During this state, questions were submitted 
to her by the manipulist, and were replied to, some 
correctly, but the greater portion otherwise, although 
all the answers had reference to the subject of inquiry, 
showing conclusively, that several of the fundamental 
elements of the mind were not influenced by the 
disease. 

During one experiment, it was observed, after she 



CATALEPSY. 16 7 

had been under this influence for an hour, that the 
wax-like flexibility of her arms was subsiding. Thom 
relates an instance of the removal of a paroxysm of 
catalepsy through the influence of music. An experi- 
ment was now resorted to by means of a large accor- 
deon played near the back of her head, but without 
apparent effect. After she was liberated from this 
condition, she at first retained no recollection of any 
circumstance whatever ; but on having her mind 
called to the subject of music, she remembered to have 
heard it, seemingly at a great distance. How this 
sound was communicated to the sensorium is an 
enigma, unless the peculiar condition in which she 
was had very much subsided, or that there is an influ- 
ence in the "concord of sweet sounds" over this 
disease. 

These experiments were instituted for the purpose 
of obtaining facts to establish the laws governing the 
phenomena of Animal Magnetism, and have been con- 
tinued in this particular case, for the elucidation of 
the disease developed by its influence. 

Catalepsy does not extend its morbid influence to 
that portion of the brain that provides nervous excite- 
ment to the system of organic life ; if it did, the func- 
tions of respiration and circulation would cease during 
the paroxysm, and life be extinguished. Neither does 
its power obliterate for the time the action of the 



168 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

intellectual organs ; for how could these be manifested 
when all the symptoms are upon the patient in their 
greatest perfection ? The power of articulation 
shows that the organs through whose agency the 
mental operations are conveyed by the faculty of 
speech are still supplied with nervous influence, and 
are under the control of the will, consequently not 
influenced by the disease ; and the source of that 
nervous power which is bestowed on the muscles 
during locomotion, and which is subject to the will, is 
also independent of its morbific action. 

The exciting cause of cataleptic symptoms may arise 
from mental or physical, social or general irritations. 
Catalepsy is only the symptom of a disease. The cause 
of the repeated attacks of this affection undermines the 
health, and ultimately destroys life. The disease being 
a secondary symptom of an irritation which is acting 
with continued injury to the system, only showing 
itself when it becomes of sufficient intensity to develope 
this peculiar condition, is uninterruptedly bearing upor 
the health of the patient. In the case under considera- 
tion, it has been repeatedly induced without the least 
injury. The reason is obvious ; — the exciting cause 
being entirely removed, the system is left in as perfect 
a state of health as before the experiment. 

The proximate cause of the pathognomonic muscu- 
lar phenomena arises in an equal distribution of 



CATALEPSY. 169 

nervous' power conferred on the voluntary muscles of 
animal life. The nervous influence necessary to the 
rectitude of these organs is regularly transmitted ; but 
as there is a disconnexion of the intellectual faculties 
and physical condition, volition is not directed to 
them, consequently they do not perform those. offices 
for which they were intended ; they are equipoised by 
this nervous stimulus. When external force is applied, 
as in bending the arm, the balance of power is merely 
overcome ; and upon withdrawing the force, the power 
is again equally balanced, presenting in the limb the 
diagnostic symptom of the disease. When the will 
acts upon these muscles in their normal condition, it 
changes or overcomes this equal distribution of the 
nervous influence, and they perform those movements 
directed by the intellect. During sleep, the voluntary 
muscular system is in the relaxed state to which it 
was resigned when sleep was taking possession of the 
system ; but the phenomenon in question is unpre- 
meditated, and seizes suddenly upon those organs 
subject to- its influence, leaving all other parts in the 
accomplishment of their natural functions. 

The pathology consists in the entire separation of 
the intellectual faculties from the requirements of 
physical existence. The functions of the external 
senses by which we are connected with surrounding 

objects, and through whose agency the mind recog- 

8 



1/70 SLEEP PYSCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

nises external relations, are by the action of the dis- 
ease closed to all impressions. The intellectual power 
of volition, which excites the muscles to act in obedi- 
ence to the dictates of the mind, is stationary ; because 
the mind is disconnected with the external world. 
This condition annuls the power of making muscular 
efforts, because it has annulled the desire of willing, 
for as the mind perceives not the situation of the body, 
it does not comprehend its wants, and therefore can- 
not will the action of the organs of external life. 

Catalepsy is confined to the voluntary motor and 
sensitive divisions of the nervous system. The intel- 
lectual operations are indirectly influenced by the 
closing of the channels of sensation. 

If the mind is not dormant when the body is under 
the influence of this disease, why does it not manifest 
itself through the vocal organs, as when replying to 
the interrogations of the magnetizer ? Simply be- 
cause the disease has shut it in from the perception of 
external influences ; and however perfect it may be 
in itself, the external world can have no bearing upon 
it ; its desire of external communication through the 
organs of speech is not excited. 

It may be asKed, through what channel the mag- 
netizer communicates his ideas to the magnetized, if 
the functions of the external senses are in abeyance ? 
The reply would be speculative ; but that they are not 



CATALEPSY. 1*71 

transmitted in the usual modes in all cases, is shown 
from the fact, that should another than the magnetizer 
propound the question, the sound would fall on the ear 
without producing an impression ; and the accurate 
perception in the sensorium of the quality of many 
substances, when placed in the hand, that during a 
natural state could only be determined by the eye, is 
opposed to the inference that the communication is 
made through the ordinary means. 

Animal magnetism produces in some constitutions 
merely a condition of sound sleep, while in others it 
superadds convulsions ; in this case it was the exciting 
cause of catalepsy, and in every instance, its morbific 
force is exerted on some portion of the nervous system. 
Irritation in the alimentary canal will sometimes pro- 
duce cataleptic symptoms; so also will the more 
direct nervous irritation of animal magnetism : but 
although this peculiar phenomenon may depend upon 
either of these causes, it is no less genuine in its cha- 
racter, and no less a proper subject of pathologic inves- 
tigation, 



CONCLUSION. 

To establish with greater certainty the doctrines, 
that the mind is absolutely sleepless ; and that we are 
dependent on external sensation for a remembrance of 
what passes in the mind in somnolency ; it becomes 
necessary to take a cursory survey of our preceding 
observations. In this, however, we shall not recapitu- 
late in detail the facts on which those doctrines are 
founded, but only consider their general bearing, and 
by the introduction of other circumstances corrobora- 
tive, endeavor to confirm our propositions. 

Sleep is a phenomenon of that part of our existence 
by which we are connected with the external world, 
and during sleep the mental operations proceed, though 
modified by its influence. During this state, the mind 
is restricted in its operations to the stimulus afforded 
by the activity of the innate powers of the cerebral 
organization, and as one consequence of this activity, 
the memory of past events is brought to view. We 
arrive at this conclusion from those states of mind in 
which we perceive that by-gone circumstances are 
recalled and associated in the mental process. And 



CONCLUSION. 1*73 

although, in these operations, the mind is brought to a 
remembrance of what has passed, the memory is not 
impressed with the thoughts which occupy it while 
external sensations do not contribute their stimuli to its 
operations. To this conclusion we come, from those 
states of being in which we know that the mind was 
active while the senses were dormant, and there was 
no remembrance on awaking of what then transpired. 
From the facts that the mind is active without the stimu- 
lus of external sensation, but that without this stimu- 
lus there is no memory, and that the perception can 
be as readily stimulated by the internal as external 
sensations, we conclude that it is exclusively through 
the activity of the organs of perception that the 
memorial faculty is manifested, and that these organs 
mUst be approached through the special senses to 
develope this mental power. 

If ceaseless activity of the mental organ exists not 
only during sleep, but in every condition short of dis- 
solution, why should not one train of thought be re- 
membered equally well with another ? The reason is, 
that perfect sleep disconnects the external world and 
mind, and any mental operation not based in concur- 
rent outward relation, cannot be recollected. 

Memory, we repeat, is a mental element manifested 
through the activity of the organs of perception. It 
is requisite, however, that these organs receive their 



174 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

stimulus from certain sources, otherwise the memorial 
faculty will not be impressed. When they receive 
their stimulus from external objects, this faculty is 
developed. When they receive their stimulus from 
the propensities or sentiments, the resulting mental 
operations are not remembered. From this circum- 
stance, we apprehend, phrenology has concluded that 
the animal organs are not possessed of memory ; but 
whether they are or not, they do not (as will after- 
wards appear) stamp the result of their stimulus in- 
delibly upon the mind. 

Universal experience teaches that what we see or 
hear, we remember better than what we imagine or 
read about, because memory is much clearer and more 
durable when its objects are perceived through the 
external senses, than when it is merely a deduction of 
the mind, or in other words, when it is only an intel- 
lectual impression. 

The perceptive faculty has three sources of stimulus; 
viz. through the media of internal and external sensa- 
tions, and the powers of reflection. The thoughts 
which follow the impressions of the first, when uncon- 
nected with the second, are not remembered ; and those 
flowing from the last, under similar circumstances, are 
imperfectly retained ; but the perception of impressions 
received through the organs of external sense, developes 
the memorial faculty in its fullest power. 



CONCLUSION. 1*75 

Through perverted or imperfect sensations, percep- 
tion is so modified, that dreaming and insanity singu- 
larly harmonize. The perceptions being in consonance 
with the state of the impressions transmitted, the per- 
ception of actual existences is imperfect, and memory 
fails to recall and associate the past with the present 
in accordance with reality : — hence some of the incon- 
gruous results of the mental operation during these 
states. 

In old age the organs of sense lose their nice pro- 
perty of receiving impressions perfectly ; consequently 
the perceptions are indistinct and the memory of re- 
cent occurrences is defective, but the remembrance of 
circumstances which occurred in times long past, when 
the senses were intact, is comparatively fresh in the 
mind. The mental operations that depended upon the 
internal impressions of those times are forgotten, and 
only those in which the external senses largely con- 
tributed, are retained. If memory, as advocated by 
Dr. Combe, be a mode of activity of the knowing or 
perceptive organs, and if this activity can be stimulated 
by the will, then we may possibly account for this 
peculiar feature of advanced age. Early impressions 
having been made upon organs in good condition to 
receive and transmit them accurately to the perceptive 
faculties, a corresponding effect was there produced. 
Now volition is little impaired by age, and through this 



176 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

power the mind can at will recall mental perceptions ; 
but the perception of impressions made through im- 
paired organs of communication, is so feeble from 
the imperfection of the instruments employed, that 
owing to this feeble perception there is but little for 
the will to act upon, and consequently, early percep- 
tions are readily recalled, while those of recent occur- 
rence are indistinctly remembered. 

A visitor's remarks upon the venerable statesman, 
John Q. Adams, then 81 years of age, appear appro- 
priate to our subject. 

" I found him," he says, " much reduced in strength 
and activity, from what he was a year ago, before the 
alarming illness he had last Fall. He was also much 
overcome by the heat, which was quite severe at the 
time. But his general health is comfortable, his spirits 
cheerful, and his intellectual powers bright and vigor- 
ous. He has a great deal of company, being an object 
of such wide-spread interest both to our own country- 
men and to foreigners. His memory of historical 
events, which has always been so remarkable a feature 
of his mind, is apparently as minute and exact as it 
ever was. Nor is his familiarity with passing events 
apparently diminished, though he himself observes that 
there are now but few classes of occurrences that 
attract his attention sufficiently to fasten themselves in 
his memory." 



CONCLUSION. 



Ill 



Another reason why early impressions are better 
remembered, is, because the mind instinctively reverts 
from scenes of age to youth, when the whole constitu- 
tion was better fitted for the enjoyment of existence. 
In reflecting upon those periods, the individual expe- 
riences more happiness than by turning the mind upon 
scenes to which the hand of time has set the price of 
experience. 

" Even so in sweet treachery, dealeth the aged with 
himself, 

" He gazeth on the green hill-tops, while the marshes 
beneath are hidden, 

" And the partial telescope of memory pierceth the 
blank between, 

" To look with lingering love at the fair star of 
childhood." 

A short time since, when in attendance upon my 
aged mother, whose mental state was, to all appear- 
ance, the counterpart of a shattered and nearly worn- 
out physical constitution, — both the mere shadow of a 
past reality — we endeavored during a paroxysm of 
apathy, to arouse her attention or memory by direct- 
ing her mind upon various topics, but without success, 
when I inquired whether she remembered the time 
when I was weaned, a period of over thirty years since. 
Her haggard and apathetic expression at once changed, 
as though a fresh gleam of light and joy had broken in 



178 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

upon her soul. Her ready reply was, " I well remem- 
ber that time," and for the instant, intelligence again 
beamed in her countenance, though, through wasted 
physical powers, the external manifestation was quickly 
obliterated ; whether it as suddenly vanished from her 
mind is even beyond conjecture. 

Dr. Thomas Brown says, that " memory, judgment, 
and imagination, may be put to sleep With opium." 
Now, in our opinion, this doctrine is erroneous, and 
the error arises from the fact, that on awaking from the 
narcotic torpor, there is no remembrance of thought 
during its continuance. The sleep induced by opium, 
although to all appearance profound, is nevertheless 
followed by great mental and bodily fatigue. If the 
dose is insufficient to cause an obliteration of external 
sensation, the mental activity is not only augmented, 
but is remembered, and much weariness is experienced 
on recovery ; ?nd when the quantity is adequate to 
produce sound sleep, the mind runs on at a still more 
rapid rate ; for upon resuscitation, the exhaustion is 
great in proportion to the degree of sleep induced. 

In sound sleep, consciousness and memory are sus- 
pended, so far as regards external relation ; but the 
weariness and exhaustion which follow the torpor in- 
duced by opium, are irrefutable evidence that Dr. 
Brown's conclusion is erroneous, for without undue 
cerebral excitement, the mind and body would have 



CONCLUSION. 1 79 

emerged from its influence refreshed, instead of being 
enfeebled. 

During sleep, memory may be inactive from ab- 
sence of external stimuli, and the judgment deranged 
through the operation of sensations unconnected with 
outward relations ; but the imagination is often stimu- 
lated into its wildest fancies by the former, while the 
restraining influence of the latter is withheld. All the 
mental faculties are modified in their activity by sleep, 
because by it a different relation is established. When 
the mind is sound and the body awake, impressions 
from without have the controlling influence , but when 
asleep, the intellectual operations are stimulated by 
internal influences, or impressions from the affections 
or feelings — consequently, a different result must be 
expected. 

It appears at least probable, that intellectual opera- 
tions induced by internal causes, are not, under any 
circumstances, the objects of memory to so great a 
degree as those produced by external objects. Certain 
it is that during that stage of sleep in which the exter- 
nal senses are in abeyance, we know that, from internal 
causes, there is excessive action in the mental organ, 
without leaving any impression upon the memory. 
For example, we refer to voluptuous orgasms in sleep, 
in which, should the excitement be so exalted as to 
arouse any of the senses, memory retains the circum- 



180 BLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

stance as a dream ; but when the exaltation does not 
reach that pitch, the mind has treasured nothing of the 
occurrence. Yet in such instances, the evacuation is 
incontestable evidence that mental action did exist, 
and that the mind was not asleep. Vigorous activity 
of a propensity or sentiment will stimulate the intellec- 
tual faculties to originate mental pictures to gratify the 
original desire ; and in these cases the mental opera- 
tions are not only diversified, but intense — involving 
the greater part of the mental powers. 

In the Medical Repository for January, 1816, there 
is a remarkable case of double consciousness, and one 
of the very few instances recorded as such, that bear 
its diagnostics. To some it may possibly present an 
objection to our views, and therefore we copy it. 

"When I was employed," says Dr. Mitchell, "early 
in December, 1815, with several other gentlemen, in 
doing the duty of a visitor to the United States Mili- 
tary Academy at West Point, a very extraordinary 
case of double consciousness in a woman, was related 
to me by one of the professors. Major Elicott, who 
so worthily occupies the mathematical chair in that 
seminary, vouched for the correctness of the following 
narrative, the subject of which is related to him by 
blood, and an inhabitant of one of the western counties 

of Pennsylvania : — Miss N possessed, naturally, a 

very good constitution, and arrived at adult age, with- 



CONCLUSION. 181 

out having it impaired by disease. She possessed an 
excellent capacity, and enjoyed fair opportunities to 
acquire knowledge. Besides the domestic arts and 
social attainments, she had improved her mind by 
reading and conversation, and was well versed in pen- 
manship. Her memory was capacious, and stored 
with a copious stock of ideas. Unexpectedly, and 
without any forewarning, she fell into a profound 
sleep, which continued several hours beyond the ordi- 
nary term. On waking she was discovered to have 
lost every trace of acquired knowledge. Her memory 
was a tabula rasa, — all vestiges, both of words and 
things, were obliterated and gone. It was found 
necessary for her. to learn everything again. She 
even acquired, by new efforts, the art of spelling, read- 
ing, writing, and calculating, and gradually became 
acquainted with the persons and objects around, like 
a being for the first time brought into the world. In 
these exercises she made considerable proficiency. 
But, after a few months, another fit of somnolency 
invaded her. On rousing from it, she found herself 
restored to the state she was in before the first parox- 
ysm ; but was wholly ignorant of every event and 
occurrence that had befallen her afterwards. The 
former condition of her existence she now calls the 
old state, and the latter the new state ; and she is as 
unconscious of her double character, as two distinct 



182 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

persons are of their respective natures. For example, 
in her old state, she possesses all her original know- 
ledge ; in her new state, only what she has acquired 
since. If a gentleman or lady be introduced to her in 
the old state, and vice verscL (and so of all other mat- 
ters), to know them satisfactorily, she must learn them 
in both states. In the old state, she possesses fine pow- 
ers of penmanship, while in the new, she writes a poor, 
awkward hand, not having had time or means of be- 
coming expert. During four years and upwards, she 
has undergone periodical transitions from one of these 
states to the other. The alternations are always 
consequent upon a long and sound sleep. Both the 
lady and her family are now capable of conducting the 
affair without embarrassment. By simply knowing 
whether she is in the old or new state, they regulate 
the intercourse, and govern themselves accordingly." 
In this case of double consciousness, the mind was 
impressed in both states through external sensation, 
and from this circumstance, she should have retained 
that which occurred in either state at any time ; but 
although this was not the fact, still whatever was im- 
pressed during either the old or new state, was readily 
recollected when the corresponding state returned, and 
there being no connexion between the states, there is 
nothing to invalidate our theory, because this is an 
instance in which the change extended indiscrimi- 



CONCLUSION. 183 

nately to all the mental powers. Memory itself was 
involved in the derangement, and therefore we find a 
perfect duality of identity. 

Eliza Bullard — our patient — aged fifteen years, by 
birth a French Canadian, of a bilio-nervous tempera- 
ment, was suddenly seized with convulsions, which 
continued at intervals for about six weeks. The 
paroxysms occurred many times a day, each lasting 
from a few minutes to two or three hours. The mus- 
cular contractions were occasionally so violent, that 
the back of the head and soles of the feet were brought 
nearly in juxtaposition. 

For about two weeks of this period, when her volun- 
tary muscular system was in the most rigid condition, 
she would sing one or two hymns so loud and clear, 
that they could be distinctly heard at ten or twelve 
rods from her dwelling. After singing, she usually 
commenced praying in an under tone. The words 
could be heard by attentive listening. Religious 
thoughts and exercises occupied her mind during the 
paroxysm. Several times we tried to resist the lower 
jaw in its movements, when articulating the words of 
the hymn, but it felt like grasping a piece of machinery, 
driven by a resistless motive power : the motion 
could not be impeded. After the paroxysm had sub- 
sided, she remembered nothing that had passed, and was 
much affected when informed of her musical perform- 



ki'l SLEEP rSl'CHOLOGlCALLY CONSIDERED. 

ance. She could always be relieved of the spasm in 
about three fourths of an hour, by placing far back on 
her tongue two drops of Croton Oil. This case we 
relate, merely as an additional illustration of mental 
activity, independent of external sensation and without 
memory. 

The senses may be intact, the motor apparatus 
subject to the will, and yet the mind perceive not the 
movements of the body, although the inception of the 
act arose in the brain. When one of a series of move- 
ments is started, the whole catenation may be com- 
pleted by the mere influence of reflex action, without 
a mental perception. " In 1834, Maria Pau was 
admitted into the hospital at Bordeaux, her left hand 
and arm covered with deep and bleeding gashes, its 
tendons projecting, and the bones broken. She had, 
in her sleep, gone into a loft to cut wood with a hedg- 
ing bill ; thinking she was cutting the wood, she had 
hacked her forearm and hand until she fainted away, 
and fell bathed in her blood. She had felt no pain, but 
merely had a sensation as if the parts were pricked 
with pins." The case of the individual who leaped 
from the hotel-window, previously related, is of the 
same character. In the leap his ankle joint was se- 
verely sprained, but it made no impression upon his 
mind. A series of actions somewhat resembling these, 
may be observed in certain animals of the lower 



CONCLUSION. 185 

orders. Neither brain nor nerve can be found in the 
polype, but it moves by irritability, and exists without 
sensation or consciousness. 

Now if these views are philosophic, a part of the 
external senses may be impressible, and yet convey no 
impression to the mind, but still guide the locomotive 
operations. Under such circumstances, the mind is in 
the same condition, so far as the influence of nerves is 
concerned, as though they were entirely inactive, and 
therefore does not disturb the theory, that memory of 
what occurs during sleep depends upon perception of 
external relation through the sensitive organs. For if 
the locomotive power resides in the spinal cord, and if 
locomotion occurs during sleep, and if the mind does 
not perceive through the nerves of sense the move- 
ments of the body, there justly can be no perception, 
although there may be sensation, and in this case, we 
apprehend, there is no memory of occurrences con- 
nected with our existence : and as before stated, ' there 
are many cases of somnambulism in which the mind 
seems not to participate.' The somnambulist receives 
the first impulse to action from the will ; after which, 
locomotion is continued through the force of reflex 
and associate or consensual action. 

It would further appear that memory is dependent 
upon the organs of external sensation, from the fact 
that it is not only observed in ordinary sleep, the 



186 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

mesmeric state, somnambulism, catalepsy, in some 
instances of insanity, but in trance also. When treat- 
ing of this last condition, two cases were related which 
are here applicable. The case of Mrs. Godfrey, with- 
out sensation, and no remembrance of the circumstan- 
ces ; and the case of the young woman, taken from the 
" Psychological Magazine," who felt her attendants pull 
on the dead clothes, and heard them sing the funeral 
hymn, and on recovery had a perfect remembrance of 
all that occurred during that dreadful period. 

It may be remarked, that the reason why in the for- 
mer instance there was no memory, was because the 
patient was unconscious. Our view is, that the mind 
is never asleep — never in abeyance — never uncon- 
scious. When the external channels of information 
are closed, it receives no knowledge from without, and 
is then only conscious of influences from within. The 
affections or feelings are now its stimulus of action, 
and mental operations having their excitement in the 
activity of these organs, which, with Combe, we believe 
not to possess memory, the mental operations are not 
retained. Even in the apoplectic coma, which may 
be so profound that the patients cannot by any means 
be aroused from their lethargy, it is no uncommon oc- 
currence to hear them muttering about circumstances 
connected with their business-affairs, and on recovery, 
retain no remembrance of having even dreamed during 



coNclusioK; 187 

the paroxysm ; but they were conscious of internal 
influences, otherwise there would have been no mani- 
festation of thought. 

Memory, therefore, we conceive to be connected 
with the activity of the organs of perception, and when 
they are stimulated by external impressions, this 
faculty is fully developed. When the same organs are 
excited, either by the influence of the propensities or 
intellectual operations, as in sound sleep, and in some 
cases of trance, the memorial power is in abeyance ; 
but when they are stimulated by that nervous mode of 
action inducing phantasm, their relation is precisely 
the same as if really impressed by physical objects. 

We are aware that some circumstances seem to 
present objections to these views. But when we con- 
template the proportional decline of memory and sensa- 
tion, as age advances, and also take into consideration 
the fact that, judgment and volition are unimpaired by 
the same cause, and that we can at will recall the 
memory of long past events as perfectly and with as 
much facility, as at any former period; and when we 
perceive the same phenomena exhibited in the with- 
holding the transmission of surrounding influences in 
sleep with its analogous states ; we can scarcely come 
to any other conclusion, than that external sensation 
and memory are most intimately connected, and that 



188 SLEEP PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 

the mind is dependent in proportion to the integrity of 
the organs of objective communication, for its remem- 
brance of what occurs during sleep. 



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